Researching Food History - Cooking and Dining

Farm to Table in Early Baltimore exhibit

2012-01-29T22:15:00.000-05:00

Federal Foodies: From Farm to Table in Early Baltimore

Feb 3 – April 29, at Homewood Museum, Johns Hopkins, Baltimore, MD

"Charles Carroll Jr. took great pride and pleasure in creating a beautiful and productive setting for his Federal-era summer house, Homewood, with fields, gardens, and orchards set amidst 130 picturesque acres. Federal Foodies examines this intersection of house and landscape by taking a closer look at food, farming, and festivity in early Baltimore. From farming and gardening practices to how foods were preserved, prepared, and presented, the exhibition offers insights into farm-to-table living, nineteenth-century style."

Two events will be held for the general public.
Feb 26, 2-4 Urban Agriculture Panel Discussion at Mattin Center J-H
April 1, 12-4 Historic Farm Day.

For more information click HERE

Julienne Soup

2012-01-23T12:46:00.002-05:00

Potage a la Julienne was/is a soup of broth with vegetables evenly cut in long thin square shapes, like wooden matchsticks or shoesting potatoes. The manner in which the vegetables were cut, julienned, is the source of the name.

"This is a favourite soup, and now highly in vogue..." [Verral, William. A Complete System of Cookery. London: 1759] Many of the soups during the 18th century involved putting the cooked vegetables and meat through seive, leaving a clear broth.

Vegetables, such as carrots and turnips, were to be cut "riband-like," while celery, leeks and onions were cut in small even slices or "lozenges" shape. [Rundell, Maria. A New System of Domestic Cookery, Phila: 1844] Verral described cutting the carrots and turnips "...about an inch in length, cut long-ways, slice it very thin, and cut into small square pieces the full length..."

Simpson's Cookery in 1834 contained a recipe for Vegetable, or Gardener's Soup which differed from Julienne by cutting "...a variety in the forms of your vegetables - round, crescents, lozenges, and olives, not cut very small."

The sliced vegetables were fried in oil or butter, or blanched in water for a few minutes. During the "...summer time add green peas, asparagus tops, French beans, some lettuce or sorrel." [Rundell] With green peas "..fling in an handful or two, but very young, for the old ones will thicken your soup, and make it have a bad look." [Verral]

Once prepared, the vegetables were placed in broth or "clear gravy" [Rundell] of beef, veal, chicken or vegetable to simmer. The soup could be thickened with bread cut in shapes, or "...crusts of two or three manchets, or French rowls, in a stewpan, boiling them till very tender in as much as will fill your soup-dish." [Verral]

Recipes from 1759 and 1846:

Potage, or Soup a la Julienne.
This is a favourite soup, and now highly in vogue, and not much more expensive than the former. [Soup Sante with herbs] Instead of beef and veal for its broth, make it of a hen and veal and a bit of ham, seasoned as before. Make your gravy of it as for Soup sante; provide some bits of carrots about an inch in length, cut long-ways, slice it very thin, and cut it into small square pieces the full length; prepare some turnips in the same manner, some celery in the smallest bits you can of equal length; blanch all this two or three minutes, strain them, and put them in your soup-pot, and when your gravy is ready strain it to them; add to this a little purslane, the hearts of two or three lettuce, a little chervil, spinage, and sorrel, minced fine, and boil it together gently for an hour; get your crusts ready as before, and serve it up. If green pease are to be had fling in an handful or two, but very young, for old ones will thicken your soup, and make it have a bad look, You may serve a chicken up in it, or veal as before.
Verral, William. A Complete System of Cookery. London: 1759

SOUP A LA JULIENNE.
Take a variety of vegetables: such as celery, carrots, turnips, leeks, cauliflower, lettuce, and onions, cut them in shreds of small size, place them in a stew-pan with a little fine salad oil, stew them gently over the fire, adding weak broth from time to time; toast a few slices of bread and cut them into pieces the size and shape of shillings and crowns, soak them in the remainder of the broth, and when the vegetables are well done add all together and let it simmer for a few minutes; a lump of white sugar, with pepper and salt are sufficient seasoning.
The Jewish Manual. London: 1846

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William Woys Weaver talks in DC

2012-01-16T13:25:00.000-05:00

On Feb 11-12, Dr. Weaver will give two presentations in Washington, DC.
Saturday the talk at RIS restaurant, 1:00 for Les Dames d'Escoffier will be on "The Mainstreaming of Heirloom Foods" ($50 for non-members, includes brunch) More info HERE

Sunday his "Food and Drink in Medieval Cyprus" presentation will be given at the CHoW (Culinary Historians of Washington DC) meeting at 2:30 (free) More info HERE

Horse Cakes

2012-01-09T11:45:00.001-05:00

“They are gingerbread of the ‘round heart’ consistency, cut in the flat, rude shape of a prancing horse with very prominent ears and very stubbed legs, sold in various small shops in Alexandria [Virginia], along with candy balls, penny whistles and fly-specked ballads. ‘Horse-cakes’ are an Alexandria institution. You should buy a few for lunch some day in the bakery…” wrote Abby Woolsey to her sister in August 1861.

A few years ago I came across this letter while researching the gas bake ovens in the US Capitol in 1861, and was intrigued with the Horse Cakes. A previous letter described the capture of women spies [on August 23, Rose Greenhow was arrested by Allen Pinkerton in DC]. One spy, an “…old woman declared her packets of letters to be [horse-cakes] between her shoulders.” [Letters of a Family during the War for the Union. 1899]

SHAPE

Bartlett described them as “Gingerbread rudely fashioned into the shape of a horse.” [Dictionary of Americanisms. 1859] “They had currants for eyes, and the children never knew whether to begin to eat at the head first or the tail.” [Harrison, Mrs. Burton. Old Fashioned Fairy Book. NY: 1884]

HISTORY

By 1845, horse-cakes were sold at a camp meeting in Anne Arundel County, Maryland [NY Herald 8/28/1845] At a General Muster, June 15, 1838 on a Virginia courthouse green “… there were little tables where men and women sold horsecakes, cup-cakes, round-cakes, and biscuits. We boys went for these and soon spent all our money.” [Bagby, Alfred. King and Queen County, Virginia.1908] The cookies were also sold at an 1856 Worcester, Mass. agricultural show.

COST

A short story/article which appeared in various newspapers in 1842 contained “…Thomas, here’s a cent – run down to the baker’s and buy a horse cake…” [Macon Weekly Telegraph. 6/14/1842] After the Civil War horse cakes sold for a penny. “Another time he was sent to buy a dollar’s worth of horse-car tickets, [for the Navy Department in DC] and came back with a hundred ginger horse cakes.” [St. Louis Globe-Democrat. 5/28/1885]

MEMORIES

“Many people have a peculiar fancy for these plain cakes, eaten first in early childhood, hence we are glad to give a tried recipe for them, such as can be made at home to please the children, old and young.” [Southwestern Christian Advocate. New Orleans, LA 12/4/1884] “Mama has often told us about horse-cakes, and the funny little shop where she used to buy them for a cent apiece.” [Harrison, Mrs. Burton. Old Fashioned Fairy Book. NY: 1884]
“…horses (which are of cake greatly resembling gingerbread and made in the form of a horse) universally predominates, and not only children but even adults select these as a favorite daily. It is no unusual spectacle to behold in the northern states an entire court – judge, jury, and lawyers – regaling themselves during an important trial on horse-cakes.” [International Monthly Magazine of Literature, Science and Art. NY: 1898]

RECIPE

Ginger Horse-Cakes
One quart of flour, one pint of best Orleans molasses, one cupful of sugar, tablespoonful and a half of ginger, two small teaspoonfuls of soda, half a cupful of sour cream, and a heaping tablespoon of lard. Sift the flour first, and then sprinkle the ginger well through it, add the sugar and molasses, putting in lastly the soda dissolved in the cream. Obtain from a tinner a cutter shaped like a horse, for cutting out the cakes. [The Universal Cookery Book. NY: 1887

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Food History Symposiums 2012

2012-01-02T22:24:00.000-05:00

There are several historic food conferences and symposiums in the next three months:

Feb 9-11 Cookbook Conference at the Roger Smith Hotel, NYC
HERE

Feb 10 deadline for speaker proposals for the July 6-8 Oxford Symposium: Wrapped & Stuffed Foods, Oxford, UK
HERE

Feb 24-25 Food and the City Conference. Boston University, MA
HERE

Mar 18-20 Good Spirits: Alcoholic Beverages of the Eighteenth Century, Colonial Williamsburg, VA. HERE

Mar 31 A Ploughman's Lunch - Bread, Cheese, Pickles and Beer; Everyday foods in the late 18th and early 19th centuries.
An Historic Foodways Symposium presented by Deborah Peterson's Pantry and Genesee Country Village and Museum. Mumford, NY
HERE

Hoecakes & Hospitality Mt Vernon exhibit

2011-12-06T17:15:00.001-05:00

Mount Vernon is having an exhibit, Hoecakes & Hospitality: Cooking with Martha Washington, starting February 18, 2012. From the press release HERE
"Beginning February 18, 2012, Mount Vernon invites visitors to experience a behind-the-scenes look at the Washingtons’ kitchen through the new exhibition, Hoecakes & Hospitality: Cooking with Martha Washington. On display inside the Donald W. Reynolds Museum, this temporary exhibition celebrates food at Mount Vernon and Martha Washington’s role as early America’s premier hostess. Following food from the Estate’s field to kitchen to table, visitors will see recipes and cookbooks that Martha treasured, pots that simmered in her kitchen, and fine tablewares that made Mount Vernon’s dining room fit for a president. For the first time ever, visitors to the Museum will experience scents as they explore the exhibition - smelling cinnamon, coffee, herbs and warm bread."
The exhibit is planned to be on display until summer 2013.

Muffin Rings, Muffin Pans

2011-11-29T22:30:00.000-05:00

Recently I started researching muffins... actually I tried to find how early in the 19th century apple muffins or apple cake using chunks of fresh apples [not dried or fresh apples cooked down to marmalade] were made.

A picture of cakes baked in cups [1906] can be seen in my blog posting for "cup cakes" HERE and more info on cups, patty pans, saucers I posted in "Queen Cakes" HERE

Initially muffins were what we call "English Muffins" - a yeast dough cooked on a griddle in muffin rings, rather then the American puffy muffins.   In 18th cen cookbooks, Glasse, [excerts below]Collingwood and Briggs all had a similar long directions, but Mason [below] had a short version.

The muffins were to be baked on a griddle or "... an iron plate... about eighteen inches square and three quarters of an inch thick. The surface should be perfectly level and very smooth, though not polished." [Godey's Lady's Book and Magazine, 1861] To "... prepare the griddle as for buckwheat cakes... "heat the griddle, and rub it hard with a coarse cloth; have a piece of pork about four inches square on a fork; rub the griddle with it..."   [Dollar Monthly Magazine. Boston: 1864]

The dough, made with yeast, was formed "...into round ball-like shape…for two hours to prove." [Godey] "...butter the muffin-rings;Set the rings on to the griddle, filling them half full of the batter; bake them about five minutes; then turn them with the rings, or bake them in the oven about fifteen or twenty minutes. [Dollar] The muffins and rings were to be turned "...by means of a knife somewhat resembling a painter's palette knife, only broader and longer, sufficiently thin to bend easily, and about sixteen Inches in length." [Godey]

After the early muffins were baked, they were toasted. “When you eat them, toast them crisp on both sides, then with your hand pull them open, and they will be like a honeycomb; lay in as much butter as you intend to use, then clap them together again, and set it by the fire. When you think the butter is melted turn them, that both sides may be buttered alike, but do no touch them with a knife, either to spread or cut them open, if you do they will be as heavy as lead, only when they are buttered and done, you may cut them across with a knife.” [ Glasse, Hannah. The Art of Cookery made Plain and Easy. London: 1784]

An American author, Parloa, described the English Muffin. "With little doubt the most delicious of all breakfast muffins is the old-time English muffin, which is never eaten in perfection except fresh from the toasting fork, the English cook never thinking it possible to serve this favorite breakfast dish unless it is first split and toasted by the fire. They are really a bread dough, well floured, baked in a ring on a slow griddle, then turned and baked on the other side. This leaves the centre hardly done, and the muffin is split and toasted on the inside. Served with coffee they are peculiarly sweet."

By 1880, Parloa differentiated the American muffin from the "bread dough" English muffin. "In this country a muffin usually means a cake baked in moulds in the oven."

Although a couple early recipes mentioned cups rather than rings – such as The Pennsylvania Farm Journal, 1853: "butter your muffin cups," muffin pans appeared in the latter part of the 19th century. Muffin rings continued to be mentioned in recipes into the 20th century.   In an 1872, Parloa presented a recipe for muffins which used saleratus rather than yeast, but still cooked them on a griddle. A few years later she used soda and muffin pans. [recipes below] Marion Tyree's Housekeeping in Old Virginia, 1879, had a muffin recipe like pound cake baked in snow-ball cups.

Parloa suggested using muffin pans, muffin cups, and muffin tins since muffin rings were passe. [New Cook Book and Marketing Guide] Next to a sketch of a muffin pan she wrote: "There are muffin pans of tin, Russian iron and granite ware. Those of iron should be chosen last, on account of their weight. It is a good thing to have pans of a number of different shapes, as a variety for the eye is a matter of importance. The muffin rings of former years have done their duty, and should be allowed to rest, the convenient cups, which come in sheets, more than filling their place."

Recipes:

1777 "English Muffins" muffin rings

To make Muffins. TAKE two quarts of warm water, two spoonsuls of yeast, three pounds of flower ; beat it well half an hour, and let it stand an hour or two; bake them on an iron bake-stove, (rub it well over with mrttcn-suet, as often as they are to be laid on) as soon as they begin to colour, turn them; when coloured on both sides they are baked enough. [Mason, Charlotte. The Lady's Assistant. London: 1777]

1872 Saleratus and muffin rings

Muffins, No. 2.

One pint of milk, one cup of sugar, five cups of flour, one teaspoonful of saleratus, two of cream of tartar, two eggs, and butter the size of an egg. Beat the butter and sugar together, and then add the eggs well beaten; with this mix the milk, and then beat in the flour in which the saleratus and cream of tartar have been mixed. Bake in buttered muffin rings in a quick oven.

[Parloa, Maria. Appledore Cook Book. Boston: 1872

1880 Muffins with soda, muffin pans

Muffins, No. 1. One quart of flour, two cupfuls of milk, half a cupful of sugar, two eggs, two teaspoonfuls of cream of tartar, one of soda, half a teaspoonful of salt, butter the size of an egg. Mix the other dry ingredients with the flour, and rub through a sieve. Melt the butter with four table-spoonfuls of boiling water. Beat the eggs light, and add the milk. Stir into the flour, and add the butter. Beat thoroughly. Bake in buttered muffin pans from twenty-five to thirty minutes, in a quick oven. [Parloa, Maria. New Cook Book and Marketing Guide. Boston: 1880]

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Grated Pumpkin Pie

2011-11-22T09:43:00.004-05:00

Early pumpkin pies were made from pureed or sliced pumpkin. A third option was to use grated pumpkin. For other posts on pumpkins click HERE

To remove excess liquid

It is important to remove some of the liquid from the grated pieces, since pumpkin slices excrete liquid when heated. The moist pieces could be “...put into a piece of cheese cloth and squeeze out the water.” [Perkins, Evora Bucknum. Laurel Health Cookery. Melrose, Mass.: 1911] “Boil the pumpkin in the milk until it swells.” [Presbyterian Cookbook. Dayton, Ohio: 1873] I have also tossed sugar with the gratings and after an hour poured out the excess liquid, or slightly fried the pieces to remove some moisture.

Pie Varieties
Grated Pumpkin Pies generally contained milk or cream, eggs, sugar and spices. Some recipes called for equal amount of milk/cream to pumpkin; but others had double the amount of milk to pumpkin. One recipe, in 1852 by Hale, only had the grated pumpkin, sugar, lemon juice and allspice… no milk. Interestingly, cocoa was suggested as a flavoring in Russell Trall’s The New Hydropathic Cook-Book. NY: 1854

SOME RECIPES:

Hasty Pumpkin Pie
One pint of grated pumpkin (raw); one quart of milk; six eggs; sugar and spice to taste. Boil the pumpkin in the milk until it swells; then let it get cold; add eggs and sugar with any spice you choose.
Presbyterian Cookbook. Dayton, Ohio: 1873

Grated Pumpkin Pie
... grate the fruit close down to the outside skin; sweeten the pulp; mix with milk and cream; flavor with grated lemon, citron, or cocoa, and bake in a single crust.
Trall, Russell. The New Hydropathic Cook-Book. NY: 1854

Pumpkin Pie (English).

Take out the seeds, and grate the pumpkin till you come to the outside skin. Sweeten the pulp; add a little ground allspice, lemon peel and lemon juice; in short, flavor it to the taste. Bake without an upper crust.
Hale, Sarah. Ladies’ New Book of Cookery. NY: 1852

National Archives DC historic foodways talks

2011-11-20T21:58:00.000-05:00

Early American Cooking, Customs, and Chocolate - "Explore cooking methods and dining customs in the colonies and early America" on Thursday, December 1, 12-2. For more info go to National Archives WEBSITE
"The panelists are Stephen A. McLeod, author of Dining with the Washingtons; Mary V. Thompson, research historian at Mount Vernon; Rodney Snyder, Mars Chocolate history research director; and B.L. Trahos, open hearth cooking instructor for Gunston Hall."

OTHER PROGRAMS IN CONJUNCTION WITH THE WHAT'S EATING, UNCLE SAM EXHIBIT:

"The Food Pyramid and Government Dietary Guidelines on Dec 8, at 7. Michele Noris of NPR moderates a discussion of the history and future of USDA dietary recommendations. Panelists include Chief Culinary Advisor José Andrés and Robert C. Post of the USDA.

Records of “What’s Cooking, Uncle Sam?” Dec 13, at 11.
Alice Kamps discusses the records used in What's Eating, Uncle Sam."

Good Spirits - Colonial Williamsburg symposium

2011-11-13T12:42:00.001-05:00

Good Spirits: Alcoholic Beverages of the Eighteenth Century, is a foodways symposium to be held at Colonial Williamsburg on March 18-20. More info: HERE The registration form is now available, as of Dec 6.

"... alcohol provided much of the average person's daily calories and carbohydrates. Beyond that, alcohol influenced political, religious, social, and cultural mores of the time in many important ways. ... They will examine the manufacture, trade, service, and consumption of the most popular beverages of the period and delve into how every level of society had their favorites.
Peter Brown, the noted English food historian will set the tone with a keynote presentation on Sunday evening. On Monday, speakers will talk about beer, cider and perry, fortified wines, punch, and the variety of glasses, bowls, and other paraphernalia of serious drinking. On Tuesday morning, there is gin, rum, and whiskey. The afternoon will focus on the use of alcohol in cooking—both then and now..."

Oranges filled with Jelly

2011-11-08T09:51:00.001-05:00

Filling emptied orange rinds with jelly was a surprising change in serving 18th and 19th century jellies. Here are a few recipes.

Oranges filled with Jelly
This is one of the fanciful dishes which make a pretty appearance on a supper table, and are acceptable when much variety is desired. Take some very fine China oranges, and with the point of a small knife cut out from the top of each a round about the size of a shilling; then with the small end of a tea or egg spoon, empty them entirely, taking great care not to break the rinds. Throw these into cold water, and make jelly of the juice, which must be well pressed from the pulp, and strained as clear as possible. Colour one half a fine rose colour with prepared cochineal, and leave the other very pale; when it is nearly cold, drain and wipe the orange rinds, and fill them with alternate stripes, of the two jellies; when they are perfectly cold cut them in quarters,and dispose them tastefully in a dish with a few light branches of myrtle between them. Calf's feet or any other variety of jelly, or different blamanges, may be used at choice to fill the rinds: the colours, however, should contrast as much as possible.
Acton, Eliza. Modern Cookery. London: 1845

Blanc Mange - With a preserved Orange
FILL the orange with blanc-mange; when cold stick in long slips of citron, like leaves, pour blanc-mange into the dish; when cold set the orange in the middle: garnish with preserved or dried fruits.
Mason, Charlotte. The Lady's Assistant. London: 1777

Oranges filled with Orange Jelly.
Take seven well-formed oranges, of a fine grain and dark colour; then, with a root-cutter of an inch and a quarter in diameter, cut out a piece from each of them in such a manner that the place where the stalk has been may be exactly in the centre; after which you gradually empty the orange with a small coffee-spoon, taking care not to break the rind ; but if that should accidentally happen, close the aperture with a little butter. As fast as you empty your oranges, throw them in a large vessel of cold water, in order to harden and refresh the rind.
In the mean time strain the juice through a bag, adding to it the juice of two lemons, and then finish the jelly, as the former. Then put your empty oranges in a large sieve, with fine pounded ice, at two inches distance from each other ; fill them with the jelly, and as soon as you are ready to serve, replace the piece which you had cut out to empty them, and put them on a neatly folded damask napkin, with some orange, laurel, or ivy leaves, between them. You may also place them in a small basket of rose-coloured confectioner's or pastil paste, and cover the oranges with a half-round of spun sugar. [See a picture at a previous posting: SPUN SUGAR]
Careme, Marie Antonin. The Royal Parisian Pastrycook and Confectioner. [1815 French] 1834

©2011 Patricia Bixler Reber
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Monroe Plateau Exhibit

2011-10-31T18:36:00.002-04:00

Two segments of the Monroe Plateau are part of the exhibit, ‘Something of Splendor’: Decorative Arts from the White House at the Smithsonian's Renwick Gallery through May 6, 2012 in DC. The 14 1/2 foot mirrored plateau in 7 pieces was bought by President Monroe in 1817 from Matelin in France. It was

"mat gilt with garlands of fruit and vines with figure of Bacchus and Bacchantes and pedestals on which are 16 Figures presenting wreathes for receiving lights [candles] and 16 cups for changing at will, composed of 7 pieces altogether 13 [sic 14] feet 6 inches long, over 2 feet wide, set with its mirrors."

The photo and info is from White House History and more details of the museum exhibit, plus a short podcast is HERE. To watch a small clip by the White House Curator speak on the plateau and other items on the exhibit go to CSPAN

George Washington also had a plateau, part of which is displayed at Mount Vernon. On Oct 13, 1789 he wrote to Gouverneur Morris ordering "...mirrors for a table, with neat and fashionable but not expensive ornaments for them; such as will do credit to your taste. The mirrors will of course be in pieces that they may be adapted to the company, (the size of it I mean) the aggregate length of them may be ten feet, the breadth two feet. The frames may be plated ware, or any thing else more fashionable but not more expensive. If I am defective refur to what you have seen on Mr. Robert Morris's table for my ideas generally." The quote is from the Library of Congress Washington's papers online at LC SITE

©2011 Patricia Bixler Reber
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Ham 'n Hay

2011-10-23T23:05:00.001-04:00

During the fall with the butchering of pigs and harvesting of hay, an interesting combo of ham and hay is worth mentioning.

Ham cooked with hay would “…greatly improve the flavor” [Leslie, Eliza. New Cookery Book. Phila: 1857], and according to the Detroit Free Press cookbook in 1881, it “…mellows the taste, and keeps it from being burned.” A third reason given was to absorb impurities – “…they should be boiled until done, in good, soft water; and, when nearly done, throw in a handful of clean Timothy hay; it absorbs all impurities which may be around the outside of the ham. As soon as done, take out the hay, but leave the ham in the water until nearly cold, when you may take it out.” [Annual Report of the Commissioner of Patents. 1852]

When boiling ham, hay would be placed in the bottom of a ham boiler. A few authors said to “…tie it up in clean hay…” [E. Smith, 1727; Table, 1854 - see below]

Hay could also be part of the storing process: “Make sacks of coarse cotton cloth, large enough to hold one ham, and fill in with chopped hay all around about two inches thick. The hay prevents the grease from coming in contact with the cloth and keeps all insects from the meat. Hang in the smokehouse, or other dry, cool place, and they will keep a long time.” [Youman, A.E. A Dictionary of Every-day Wants. NY: 1872]

A further use of hay in the late 19th/early 20th centuries was for hay boxes, which were early forms of fireless cookers. In the future, I will post an article on this unusual cooking apparatus.

Image from Library of Congress.

______

To boil a Ham. Lay your ham in cold water for two hours, wash it clean, and tie it up in clean hay; put it into fresh water, boil it very slow for one hour, and then very briskly for an hour and a half more. Take it up in the hay and let it lie in til cold, then rub the rind with a clean piece of flannel. [E. Smith. The Compleat Housewife, 1727]

To Boil a Ham. —There are so many "best modes" of cooking ham, that it is difficult to decide among them. This much, however, is certain, that unless you have a very good cook, it will be well to envelop the ham in a flour-and-water crust, and bake it. Hams are sometimes boiled in lard, and the reason for this is, that it takes a very high temperature to make fat boil, and consequently the ham is cooked very gently. Some persons boil it in champagne, and others in white wine.

The old-fashioned way was to boil a ham, of about 20 lb. weight, in the boiler from three and a-half to about five hours, according to its size, simmering it all the time. The more modern method appears to be to put it in cold water, and bring it to boil; then simmer till done. A very old-fashioned way in England to boil hams, and which has a great many admirers to this day, is wrapping up the ham in hay, and simmering it very gently; while others are contented to place hay under the ham in the pot. No harm is done by either mode; but the cook must remember, that the ham is to be put into hot water and never allowed to boil. But to cook a ham to perfection, make a large pot-au-feu, and cook your ham in it. Let it simmer until an iron skewer will enter easily to the bone; then lift it out of the pot; take the skin off; either glaze it, or sift fine raspings over it. Send it hot or cold to table, and we will promise that neither white wine nor champagne is required to make it excellent. The hay had better be given to your horse, and the white wine and champagne drunk at table. [Table Observances. London: 1854]

TO BOIL A HAM. Wash and scrape the ham clean ; put it on in cold water enough to cover it; put into the water two onions, two carrots, a head of celery, a dozen cloves and a handful of timothy hay; boil without stopping until the skin will readily peel from the ham; cover the ham with rolled crackers, or bread crumbs that have been browned and rolled, and bake in a slow oven for two hours. [The Home Cook Book. Chicago]

Nice sweet timothy hay, cut fine, is the best thing extant for packing bacon, as it imparts a pleasant aromatic taste ... [Thomas, John. The Illustrated Annual Register of Rural Affairs and Cultivator. 1870]

©2011 Patricia Bixler Reber
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Stuffed Pigs Ears - Forced Hogs Ears

2011-10-11T16:41:00.001-04:00

During the fall, several festivals include pig butchering demonstrations, such as this past weekend at Landis Valley Museum, in Lancaster, PA. I didn't get to leave the bake oven, so I am not sure if they cleaned the stomach for Hog Maw or saved other parts[ie. the ears] of the pig. In January I posted about "Pudding" made from scraps, and now I'll include a couple of British recipes for stuffing the ears.

There were several ways 18th century cooks prepared hog's ears. Two recipes to stuff the ears are given below. One, Hog's Ears Forced by Glasse [1747 and 1799] had the same ingredients as Moxon - just written differently - anchovy, sage, parsley, suet, bread crumbs, pepper, egg yolk, and a sauce of gravy, wine, mustard, butter, flour, onion and pepper. The other recipe, Plovers Capuchine was a very different stuffing of forcemeat and the bird, a plover, positioned in the ear so its beak peaked out.

Other pig's ear receipts were Fricassee, Ragouts/Ragoed/Ragoo, Sauce, Frying, Broiled, Marbree, and Pickle.

Plovers Capuchine Take four hog's ears, boil them tender, put a piece of force meat and your birds in the ears, with the head outwards, set them upright, the tips of the ears, falling backwards; wash them with eggs and crumbs then bake them gently; and serve them up with gravy.
Peckham, Ann. The Complete English Cook. Leeds: [1790?]

Glasse:
To make a Number of pretty little Dishes, fit for a Supper, or Side-dish, and little Corner-dishes, for a great Table; and the rest you have in the Chapter for Lent.

Hogs Ears forced.
TAKE four hogs ears, and half boil them, or take them soused; make a force-meat thus: take half a pound of beef-suet, as much crumbs of bread, an anchovy, some sage; boil and chop very fine a little parsley; mix all together with the yolk of an egg, a little pepper; slit your ears very carefully to make a place for your stuffing; fill them, flour them, and fry them in fresh butter till they are of a fine brown; then pour out all the fat clean, and put to them half a pint of gravy, a glass of white wine, three tea-spoonfuls of mustard, a piece of butter as big as a nutmeg rolled in flour, a little pepper, a small onion whole; cover them close, and let them stew softly for half an hour, shaking your pan now and then. When they are enough, lay them in your dish, and pour your sauce over them, but first take out the onion. This makes a very pretty dish; but if you would make a fine large dish, take the feet, and cut all the meat in small thin pieces, and stew with the ears. Season with salt to your palate.
Glasse, Hannah. The art of cookery made plain and easy
Rundell, Maria. A new system of domestic cookery. London: 1807 has the same recipe, adding finely minced veal to the forcemeat.

©2011 Patricia Bixler Reber
hearthcook.com

Gingerbread Rolls and Nuts

2011-09-23T16:07:00.000-04:00

I have not had access to my computer and my files for awhile, so I apologize for not posting. The following article I wrote on Gingerbread Rule somehow got lost in my drafts.

Gingerbread Rule, a recipe from a written manuscript in Ct., mid to late 1700s, was posted on 18thcenturywomen Yahoo group, with the query: what did the word Rule mean? I think RULE was ROLL. The words roule [rule with an o] and rowle appear in some 17th century cookbooks to mean roll it out, or make in a shape of a roll, and then bake it.

John Murrell, 1621 in his receipt for White Gingerbread said to "...roule it in round cakes and print it with your moulds..." [The gingerbread seller from the Cries of Paris, left, has some moulded cakes] In 1749, Charles Carter [The London and Country Cook, and later copied by Elizabeth Moxon 1764] suggested to shape the gingerbread dough "...into long rolls or cakes, as you please..."

Rolls of gingerbread prices in early 18th cen. America were "...a penny a roll of gingerbread... a card of ten rolls for fourpence-halfpenny..." at pedlers' cards on the Green recalled Alcott. [New Connecticut. Amos Bronson Alcott. Boston: 1887]

Roll Gingerbread literally called for rolling the baked thin wafer around a stick. The1854 receipt of flour, sugar, butter, ginger and lemons combined into a soft paste dropped on tins to bake, then "...either be made small for nuts, or into large cakes, when they are rolled round a small stick whilst warm." [The Complete Biscuit and Gingerbread Baker's Assistant. George Read London: 1854] His next recipe, Italian Jumbles, with 6 lbs. of raw treacle, rolled out dough 1/8 in., cut in 3" rounds, bake, then "...turn them, whilst warm, in the form of a cone, the same as the grocers make up their sugar papers, or turn them round a stick as the last."

Gingerbread Nuts were balls or small round cutouts. Frederick Nutt, The Complete Confectioner, 1790 simply said "...make them the size you choose..." Eliza Leslie [Seventy-five receipts for pastry, cakes, and sweetmeats ] described two versions: "...roll it out in two even sheets, about half an inch thick, and cut it out in little cakes, with a very small tin, about the size of a cent. [or] You may, if you choose, shape the gingerbread nuts, by putting flour in your hand, taking a very small piece of the dough, and rolling it into a little round ball."

In The Cook's Own Book by Mrs. N.K.M. Lee in Boston: 1832, there are four recipes for Gingerbread Nuts, to be made: 1- "roll it out, make it into nuts; 2- with a spoon drop the nuts upon buttered tins; 3- make it into nuts, by pinching it into pieces with the finger and thumb; [or] 4- form it into nuts, or roll it out, and cut it into round cakes."

SOME RECIPES MENTIONED:

To make gingerbread.

Take three pounds of fine flower, and the rind of a lemon dry'd and beaten to powder, half a pound of sugar, or more, as you like it, and an ounce and half of beaten ginger; mix all these well together, and wet it pretty stiff with nothing but treacle ; make it into long rolls or cakes, as you please ; you may put cadied orange-peel and citron in it: butter your paper you bake it on, and let it be bak'd hard.

The London and Country Cook: or, Accomplished Housewife. Charles Carter 1749 and in Elizabeth Moxon 1764

Honeycomb, or Roll Gingerbread.—1 lb. of flour, 1 lb. of good moist sugar, 1/2 lb. of butter, 1 oz. of ground ginger, the yellow rind of 2 lemons grated off, some also add the juice.

Rub the butter in with the flour, add the sugar, and mix the whole into a soft paste with raw treacle thin enough to be dropped on tins, which should be well buttered; let each cake be four or five inches asunder, as they spread very much; bake them in rather a cool oven. These may either be made small for nuts, or into large cakes, when they are rolled round a small stick whilst warm. These should be kept quite close in a tin canister, in a dry warm place.
The Complete Biscuit and Gingerbread Baker's Assistant. George Read. London: 1854

Italian Jumbles, or Brandy Snaps.—6 lbs. of flour, 7 lbs. of good rich sugar, 1 1/4 lb. of butter or lard, 2 oz. of ginger or allspice, 6 lbs. of raw treacle.

Rub the butter in with the flour, mix in the sugar and spice; make a bay, pour in the treacle, and make the whole into a moderately stiff paste; this improves by keeping. Roll it out into sheets rather more than the eighth of an inch in thickness; cut them out with a spice cake cutter (a plain round cutter three inches and an eighth in diameter) ; put them on tins well buttered, about three inches asunder; wash the tops with water, and bake them in a cool oven. They will be found to be baked enough, if, on pressing the cake in the centre with the top of your finger, it will rise up again. 'When they are baked and a little cool, cut them from the tins, by passing a thin knife under them; turn them, whilst warm, in the form of a cone, the same as the grocers make up their sugar papers, or turn them round a stick as the last. If they should get too cold to turn, put them again into the oven to warm.

Brandy Snaps are the same as these, without being turned. The dough is best made up a week or fortnight before it is required to be used.
The Complete Biscuit and Gingerbread Baker's Assistant. George Read London: 1854

GINGERBREAD, ROLL. Take 3 lbs. of flour, 2 lbs. of sugar, 1 lb. of butter, seven eggs, a tea-spoonful of saleratus dissolved in a cup of milk, and a cup of ginger. Roll it out very thin on tin sheets. It will bake in ten or fifteen minutes.
[among many other recipes such as G, Lafayette, G, Spiced; Oatmeal; Indian; Nuts...]
The Household Encyclopædia. London: 1858

GINGERBREAD NUTS.

Two pounds of flour, sifted.
One pound of fresh butter.
Half a pound of brown sugar.
One quart of sugar house molasses.
Two ounces of ginger, or more, if it is not very strong.
Twelve dozen grains of allspice, /
Six dozen cloves, / - powdered and sifted.
Half an ounce of cinnamon, /

Cut up the butter in the flour. Spread the sugar on your paste-board, and crush it very fine with the rolling-pin. Put to it the flour and butter, and then add the ginger and other spice. Wet the whole with the molasses, and stir all well together with a knife.

Throw some flour on your paste-board, take the dough (a large handful at a time) and knead it in separate cakes. Then put all together, and knead it.very hard for a long time, in one large lump. Cut the lump in half, roll it out in two even sheets, about half an inch thick, and cut it out in little cakes, with a very small tin, about the size of a cent. Lay them in buttered pans, and bake them in a moderate oven, taking care they do not scorch, as gingerbread is more liable to burn than any other cake.

You may, if you choose, shape the gingerbread nuts, by putting flour in your hand, taking a very small piece of the dough, and rolling it into a little round ball.*

* Gingerbread nuts are much improved by mixing with the dough half a tea-spoonful of pearl-ash, dissolved in a little vinegar.

Seventy-five receipts for pastry, cakes, and sweetmeats. Eliza Leslie. Phila: 1828

©2011 Patricia Bixler Reber
hearthcook.com

Mary Foote Henderson's castle

2011-07-28T22:36:00.000-04:00

There is an interesting illustrated article HERE about cookbook author Mary Foote Henderson's entertaining and her huge mansion, Boundary Castle, built in 1888 in DC. Not your average cookbook writer's home.

Henderson was the author of Practical Cooking and Dinner Giving in 1877 [one of 76 digitized at the Feeding America site HERE] and Diet for the Sick, A Treatise on the Values of Foods HERE in 1885.

"She also became an impassioned evangelist of healthy living... writing a 1904 book, The Aristocracy of Health HERE... Mrs. Henderson was famous for her elegant dinners featuring strictly vegetarian cuisine and no alcohol. A 1905 fete included a fruit soup, mock salmon in hollandaise sauce, broiled slices of pine-nut Protose (Protose was a meat substitute made of peanut butter, wheat gluten, and corn starch, among other things), unfermented Catawba wine, iced fruit, and Kellogg Gelatine for dessert.... the printed menu cards for this dinner included figures corresponding to each item on the bill of fare, showing the ... 'calories' contained in each dish. Like all meals prepared by Mrs. Henderson's accomplished English chef, it was said that the uninitiated couldn't tell that they weren't eating meat or fish."

©2011 Patricia Bixler Reber
hearthcook.com

National Archives talks and other July events

2011-07-09T15:44:00.001-04:00

What's Cooking Uncle Sam? June 10-January 2012 Exhibit at the National Archives in Washington DC. Newly listed events:

Tuesday, July 12, noon The Frozen Sucker War: Good Humor v. Popsicle [1920s]

Wednesday, July 20, noon The Astronaut’s Cookbook by Dr. Charles Bourland, retired long-time director of NASA’s food program.

Friday, August 5, noon A White House Garden Cook Book: Healthy Ideas from the First Family to Your Family

For past lectures and info about the National Archives new Wikipedian in Residence" click HERE

Other July activities

July 14-19 Herbal workshops. Plimoth Plantation

July 17 is National Ice Cream Day, with many events occuring during the entire National Ice Cream Month. At the end of June there was the Annual Icescreamers Convention in Lancaster PA.

July 28-29 5th Annual Kneading Conference in Skowhegan, Maine includes building ovens.

©2011 Patricia Bixler Reber
hearthcook.com

Cup Cake

2011-06-21T20:17:00.002-04:00

Some early cakes, such as "Queen's Cakes" [ more info here] were baked in small containers such as cups or small pans. The first cookbook published by an American author American Cookery by Amelia Simmons in 1798 contained two recipes for cakes baked in cups or small tins.

"Soft Cakes in little pans.
One and half pound sugar, half pound butter, rubbed into two pounds flour, add one glass wine, one do. rose water, 18 eggs and a nutmeg.

A light Cake to bake in small cups.
Half a pound sugar, half a pound butter, rubbed into two pounds flour, one glass wine, one do. rose water, two do. emptins, a nutmeg, cinnamon and currants."

Illustration of cakes made in cups from Table Talk, 1906.

Baking the cakes in small cups may have been one source for the name Cup Cake.

Cup measurements

Another source of the name Cup Cake may be that in some, but not all recipes, the measurements were in increments of a cup. Family Magazine,1837, stated in its "White Cup Cake" receipt: "The cups in which most of the ingredients are measured, must be of half pint size." In 1840, Eliza Leslie wrote to "measure one large coffee cup."

One example of the cup measurement is Child's The Frugal Housewife in 1830:

"Cup cake. Cup cake is about as good as pound cake, and is cheaper. One cup of butter, two cups of sugar, three cups of flour, and four eggs, well beat together, and baked in pans or cups. Bake twenty minutes, and no more."

A 1,2,3,4 type recipe that used milk rather than eggs, and pearlash as leavening, is found in The Cook Not Mad of 1831: "Cup Cake. Four cups of flour, three of sugar, two of butter, one of milk, small tea spoonful of pearlash, spoonful of ginger, essence of lemon." After 1850, some recipes were named "1, 2, 3, 4 Cake" or "Numbers Cake."

American origins

The first time the term cup cake was used was by Eliza Leslie in 1827. Thirty years later, it appeared in The Canadian settler's guide, 1857, with the notation: "This is a regular American cake." The term was included in a British cookbook in 1862, in Foreign desserts for English tables, by the author of 'Everbody's pudding book.'

CUP CAKE.

Five eggs.
Two large teacupsfull of molasses.
The same of brown sugar, rolled fine.
The same of fresh butter.
One cup of rich milk.
Five cups of flour, sifted.
Half a cup of powdered allspice and cloves.
Half a cup of ginger.

Cut up the butter in the milk, and warm them slightly. Warm also the molasses, and stir it into the milk and butter : then stir in, gradually, the sugar, and set it away to get cool.

Beat the eggs very light, and stir them into the mixture alternately with the flour. Add the ginger and other spice, and stir the whole very hard.

Butter small tins, nearly fill them with the mixture, and bake the cakes in a moderate oven.
Leslie, Eliza. Seventy-five receipts for pastry, cakes, and sweetmeats. Phila: 1827

Variations

A variety of Cup Cakes appeared in the first half of the 1800s, including New-York, Cream, Molasses, Tea, and CC without eggs. In 1846, Mrs. Cornelius gave two cup cake receipts, the second recipe included currants.

"Five teacups of flour, three of sugar, one and a half of butter, one of cream, or sour milk, five eggs, a half a teaspoonful of saleratus, and a lemon. Currants or not, as preferred. ...
New Orleans or good brown sugar is best for raised, fruit, and wedding cake, but it must be coarse-grained and clean. It will answer also for cup cake, especially if fruit is used. Crushed white sugar must be used for sponge and other white cake.
The fruit must be added to raised cake when it is ready for the oven. It should be spread equally over the top, and stirred only a little below the surface, else it will sink to the bottom."
Cornelius, Mrs. The young housekeeper's friend. Boston: 1846

For more recipes go to Cup Cakes

©2011 Patricia Bixler Reber
hearthcook.com

What's Cooking Uncle Sam? exhibit at National Archives DC

2011-06-03T12:35:00.001-04:00

What's Cooking Uncle Sam? June 10-January 2012
Exhibit at the National Archives in Washington DC.

June 10 Fri noon The First Kitchen of FDR Laura Shapiro

June 10 7 P.M. Chef José Andrés and David Gregory

June 15 Wed noon High on the Hog: A Culinary Journey from Africa to America. Jessica B. Harris

June 16 Thurs noon The Return of Archives Jeopardy! Archivist of the US, David S. Ferriero

June 22 Wed noon Johnny Appleseed: The Man, the Myth, and the American Story. Author Howard Means

June 23 Thurs noon What’s Cooking, Uncle Sam? Curator Alice Kamps shares the surprising discoveries.

June 25 Sat noon Johnny Appleseed and Ratatouille movies

The images are from the exhibit web site.

And while we are on the subject of the National Archives, which is a researchers treasure trove... except I don't care for the pull times... the Library of Congress is any time. But I digress. The Archives just hired a "Wikipedian in Residence." Wikipedia!?! The British Museum was the first with a volunteer coordinator. Volunteers are also at Museu Picasso in Barcelona, the Children`s Museum in Indianapolis and the Archives of American Art in DC.

"If you put something on the National Archives Web site, you might get 1,000 page views. Yesterday the main Wiki page got 12 million hits. ...The first big thing we did was we brought some of Ansel Adams`s photographs to the public, which was a big deal. He took a series of photos for the National Park Service -- he was commissioned. They`re in the public domain. They were online but they were small-resolution photos. So we took these 200 photos and put them up on Wikipedia with the highest-resolution photos."

For the entire article go to Washington Post, June 2

©2011 Patricia Bixler Reber
hearthcook.com

Flowers - To candy, to make paste, a conserve

2011-05-11T16:00:00.002-04:00

While looking through Queen's Delight. London: 1683 in the LofC rare books room, I came across these interesting receipts using flower petals.

To make paste of flowers of the colour of Marble, tasting of natural flowers.
Take every sort of pleasing flowers, as Violets, Cowslips, Gilly-flowers, Roses or Marigolds, and beat them in a Mortar, each flower by it self with Sugar, till the Sugar become the colour of the flower, then put a little Gum-Dragon steept in water into it, and beat it into a perfect paste, and when you have half a dozen colours, every flower will take of his nature; then rowl the Paste therein, and lay one piece upon another, in mingling sorts, so rowl your Paste in small rolls, as big and as long as your finger, then cut it off the bigness of small Nut, overthwart, and so rowl them thin, that you may see a Knife through them, so dry them before the fire till they be dry.

Conserve of Piony after the Italian way.
In the Spring take of the Flowers fresh half a pound, Sugar one pound, beat them together in a good stone Mortar, then put them in a glass, and set them in the sun for three months, stirring them daily with a wooden Spatula.
The Virtues. It is good against the Falling-sickness, and giddiness in the head, it clantheth the Reins and Bladder.

Image- Peony in The Ladies' Flower-garden of Ornamental Perennials by Mrs. Loudon. London: 1843.

To Candy Rosemary flowers in the Sun.
Take Gum dragon, and steep it in Rose-water, then take the Rosemary flowers. Then beat a dozen spoonfuls of fair water, and the white of an Egg in a bason with a Birchen rod till it come to froth, when your Sugar is all melted and boyled, put the froth of the Egg in the hot Syrup, and as it riseth, drop in a little cold water, so let it boyl a little while, then scum it, then boyl it to a Candy height, that is, whey you may draw it in small threads between your finger and your thumb; then pour fourth all your Syrup that will run from it in you pan, then set it a drying one hour or two, which done, puck up the wires, and take off the flowers, and lay them on Papers, and so dry them. Queen's Delight. London: 1683

Another version, 1671: Take Gum-Dragon, and steep it in Rose-water, then take the Rosemary flowers, good coloured, and well pickt, and wet them in the water that your Gum dragon is steeped in, then take them out, and lay them upon a paper, and strew fine Sugar over them; this do in the hot sun, turning them, and strewing Sugar on them, till they are candied, and so keep them for your use.
A QUEENS Delight; OR, The Art of Preserving, Conserving and Candying. London: 1671

Food History Symposium, Workshop - 2011 - part 3

2011-05-04T12:07:00.000-04:00

May 25 Washington DC SoFAB Roundtable Series: Advances Against Obesity - An Industry Perspective. Capitol Hill Club, DC 4-6pm. By The Southern Food and Beverage Museum and the American Beverage Association. More info here

June 6 -11 Barbara Ketcham Wheaton's seminar: Reading Historic Cookbooks: A Structured Approach. Schlesinger Library on the History of Women in America. Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study. Harvard University, Cambridge, MA
More info here

June 18 Foodways in Early America panel, part of the 17th Annual Conference of the Omohundro Institute for Early American History and Culture. SUNY New Paltz, NY. Peter Rose will chair, with speakers Rachel B. Herrmann, Michael A. LaCombe, and Maya Rook. More info here

Sept 16-17 3rd Annual Words in Food Symposium: Hungry in the South. The Southern Food and Beverage Museum. New Orleans, LA.
More info here

MORE FOOD SYMPOSIUMS 2011 HERE

©2011 Patricia Bixler Reber
hearthcook.com

Easter Monday egg roll, egg cracking & throwing

2011-04-25T10:01:00.000-04:00

Eggs have been decorated for centuries, with some intricate or memorable ones "preserved very carefully in the corner-cupboard ; each egg being the occupant of a deep, long-stemmed ale-glass, through which the inscription [one segment contained the name and age of the child recieving the egg] could be read without removing it." [The Every Day Book, William Hone. London: 1826]

The eggs which were plainly decorated were made or bought for use on the Monday after Easter. Boys would play games such as tossing an egg, egg rolling or holding the egg encased in their hand and hitting the end of the egg held by another. The egg which cracked would be given to the winner. Occasionally someone would cheat and use a wooden or marble egg. Years ago my sons, now 25 and 26, had their own game after the Easter egg hunt... throwing the eggs at each other.

The White House Easter Egg Roll, going on this morning, follows the Easter Monday tradition. The last quote, below, recalled a roll event on the Capitol grass, generally closed to the public, where over 5,000 attended, since Washington, D.C. schools closed on that day.

For more information on decorating 19th century Easter Eggs, Paas Eggs, Pasche Eggs, or Paste Eggs go HERE.

CRACKING EGGS ON EASTER MONDAY IN NEW YORK - 1836

In New-York, eggs, died or stained with a variety of colours, are displayed for sale on Easter-Monday, by grocers, hucksters, fruiterers, and other venders of edible refreshments. These are called paas-eggs, or pasch-eggs.

We cannot find that the custom of cracking eggs on Easter-Monday, as practised in New-York and some other parts of the United States, by the descendants of the Dutch settlers, is known among other nations. The game (if it be one) is played in the following manner :—

Both parties, we will suppose, are prepared for the contest, being already "supplied with the munitions of war ;" say, a dozen eggs each, carefully selected and scientifically tested, by striking the huits and points (the big and little ends, against the front teeth, in order to be certain that the shells are hard, strong, thick, stout, and if possible,"uncrackable." The challenger then encloses an egg in one of his hands, so that no part of it is visible except the point (or butt, as the conditions maybe), which does not protrude above the horizontal level of the circling thumb and fingers, but remains some distance below it, generally supported beneath by the palm of the other hand. Holding it m this manner, he challenges his antagonist to hit it with the point or butt of another egg. The shell of one of them must, of course, yield to the force of the concussion, and the cracked egg becomes the prize of the victor. In this manner, hundreds of eggs are lost and won in a short time ; and as the slight injury which they receive does not lessen their intrinsic value, the winnings are of some account to the victors.

Artificial eggs, curiously made of wood, marble, and other hard substances, are frequently used with such address as completely to deceive the eye, and thus the unsuspecting party falls an easy prey to tho artifice of his antagonist, and finds himself suddenly stripped of his capital, and put hors du combat, without being able to account for the misfortune. But wo betide the juvenile sharper should the trick be detected ! The scene exhibited on a certain race-course, between a certain prince and another jockey, would here be repeated on a smaller scale. Ten to one but an attempt would be made to crack something harder than eggs.
Festivals, games, and amusements: ancient and modern. Horatio Smith. NY: 1836

GAMES WITH EGGS ON EASTER MONDAY IN ENGLAND - 1826, 1849

At this day, the Easter eggs used in England are boiled hard in water containing a dye, so that they come out coloured. The boys take these eggs and make a kind of game, either by throwing [bowling] them to a distance on the green sward—he who throws oftenest without breaking his eggs being the victor— or hitting them against each other in their respective hands, in which case the owner of the hardiest or last surviving egg gains the day.
Chambers's Information for the people, William Chambers. Edinburgh: 1849

It will be readily supposed that the majority of pace eggs are simply dyed; or dotted with tallow to present a piebald or bird's-eye appearance. These are designed for the junior boys ... they are hurled to swift destruction. In the process of dying they are boiled pretty hard—so as to prevent inconvenience if crushed in the hand or the pocket. But the strength of the shell constitutes the chief glory of a pace egg, whose owner aspires only to the conquest of a rival youth. Holding his egg in his hand he challenges a companion to give blow for blow. One of the eggs is sure to be broken, and its shattered remains are the spoil of the conqueror: who is instantly invested with the title of " a cock of one, two, three," &c. in proportion as it may have fractured his antagonist's eggs in the conflict. A successful egg, in a contest with one which had previously gained honours, adds to its number the reckoning of its vanquished foe. An egg which is a "cock" of ten or a dozen, is frequently challenged. A modern pugilist would call this a set-to for the championship. Such on the borders of the Solway Frith were the youthful amusements of Easter Monday.
The Every Day Book, William Hone. London: 1826

CAPITOL AND WHITE HOUSE EASTER EGG ROLL - 1874

THE most interesting part of the Easter festival for the children in Washington, and for many older people, too, is Easter Monday, when all the schools in the city are closed, and the little folks have leave to play on the grass in Capitol Park... It is the only day in all the year when they let people go on the grass.

Almost every one had Easter eggs — boiled hard and colored bright red, and crimson, and purple, and blue, and green, and brown, and many figured and covered with pictures, very pretty. They brought them in their hands, and in baskets, and some had as many as a dozen; and they at once commenced the game of rolling them down the grassy slopes, and when one got broken they would eat it. More and more children kept pouring in... and by noon there were more than five thousand, besides a great many grown people who came to look at them... They shouted and screamed and laughed, and chased each other, and rolled their eggs down the banks, and rolled down themselves after them.

Two high banks run around the Capitol building, one above the other, each about three times as high as a man, and as steep as the roof of a house; and the girls were running down and the boys rolling down those grassy banks all day long; and the number of tumbles they had could not be counted.

They have it so every year, and it is the same in the grounds around the President's house, and in the other parks. There must have been at least ten thousand tired and dirty children washed and put to bed in this city that Monday night; and it is feared that some of them were just a little cross. April 8, 1874.
Glimpses of places, and people, and things. Geo. C. Smithe. Mich: 1887

Image of White House Easter Egg Roll, 1889 in Library of Congress Prints.

Cries of London on fore-edge painting

2011-04-19T12:25:00.000-04:00

This picture of "The Cries of London: Peas, Strawberries, Cherries," is painted on the fore-edge of the book Poems, by the late William Cowper, Esq. of the Inner-Temple. v2 London: 1820. It is in a phenominal collection of fore-edge paintings, from the Rare Books Department of the Boston Public Library, online HERE.

Fore-edge paintings are viewed by slightly fanning the page edges. When closed the edges of the page may be gold gilded. To view a video snippet of revealing the painting, see HERE, at Martin Frost's site, which also shows a Split Double Press, at right.

For further information on the history of fore-edge painting check out the online copy of A thousand and one fore-edge paintings, with notes on the artists, bookbinders, publishers, and other men and women connected with the history of a curious art; by Carl J. Weber. Waterville, ME: Colby College Press, 1949. HERE

Food History Symposiums 2011 part 2

2011-04-12T21:31:00.002-04:00

June 15-17 "Food and Drink: their social, political and cultural histories"
University of Central Lancashire UK
MORE INFO

July 8-10 Oxford Symposium "Celebration - 30 years of food thought"
St. Catherines's College. Oxford UK
MORE INFO

Sept 13-16 "The History of the European Food Industry in the 19th and the first half of the 20th century"
International Commission for the Research of European Food History. Bologna
MORE INFO

Nov 26-27 New Zealand Symposia for Food History. "The 1920s"
MORE INFO

MORE FOOD SYMPOSIUMS 2011 HERE

©2011 Patricia Bixler Reber
hearthcook.com

Queen Cakes and patty-pans

2011-04-08T13:30:00.007-04:00

Queen's Cakes are little pound cakes with currants baked in small fluted pans. "These are done the same way as the plum-cake, only all the fruits (except the currants) are kept out, and they are baked in small-ribbed petty-pans." [The Practice of Cookery, Pastry, and Confectionary. Mrs. Frazer. 1820]

Although basically flour, sugar, butter, eggs, (the beaten eggs are the leavening) mace and currants, with sugar sprinkled on the top, the small cakes could also contain orange flower water [1725], rose water [1764], nutmeg [1787], or pounded almond flour or almond pieces [1827, 1764].

To make Queens Cakes. - 1725
"TAke a Pound of dry'd Flower, a Pound of refin'd Sugar sifted, and a Pound of Currans wash'd, pick'd, and rubb'd clean, and a Pound of Butter wash'd very well, and rub it into the Flower and Sugar, with a little beaten Mace, and a little Orange-Flower Water; beat ten Eggs, but half the Whites, work it all well together with your Hands, and put in the Currans; sift over it double-refin'd Sugar, and put them immediately into a gentle Oven to bake." [Court Cookery. Robert Smith. 1725]

More details may be found in Moxon, 1764, which also had a recipe 'To make King Cakes' "... make them up in little round cakes, and butter the papers you lie them on."

"To make Queen Cakes. Take a pound of London flour dry'd well before the fire, nine eggs, a pound of loaf sugar beaten and sifted, put one half to your eggs and the other to your butter; take a pound of butter and melt it without water put it into a stone bowl, when it is almost cold put in your sugar and a spoonful or two of rose water, beat it very quick, for half an hour, till it be as white as cream; beat the eggs and sugar as long and very quick, whilst they be white; when they are well beat mix them all together; then take half a pound of currans cleaned well, and a little shred mace, so you may fill one part of your tins before you put in your currans; you may put a quarter of a pound of almonds shred (if you please) into them that is without the currans ; you may ice them if you please, but do not let the iceing be thicker than you may lie on with a little brush." [English Housewifry. Elizabeth Moxon 1764]

Queen cakes appear in confectioner's ads in the 18th and 19th century. "Seymour's Coffee and Jelly House... Hartshorn jellies in perfection at 2 s per dozen; royal queen cakes at 2 d, chocolate at 2 d a dish, and Arrack made into punch, as cheap as rum or brandy..." [Gazetteer and Londan Daily Advertiser. Oct. 16, 1756]

NAME

Many court chefs of the 17th and 18th century wrote cookbooks, some with the word Queen in the title: The Queen's Closet Opened [1654], The Queen-like Closet [1670], Queens Delight [1671] and The Queen's Royal Cookery [1713]. Dedications and recipes were named for a specific royal, such as "To make a Cake the way of the Royal Princess, the Lady Elizabeth, daughter to King Charles the first." "Queen's Pancakes" and "Queen Cake" appeared in Court Cookery, 1725, by Robert Smith who wrote in his forward that he cooked in the kitchens of King William under Patrick Lamb.

The French may have influenced the naming of Queen Cakes with recipes titled "Bisquite du Roy" [The Accomplisht Cook, by Robert May, 1685] and "Queen's Cake. Gateau a la Reine."

Queen's Cake. Gateau a la Reine.
"Beat a pound of sweet almonds; add a pound of sifted sugar, and four whites of eggs by degrees; when well prepared it may be made into different shapes, and decorated according to fancy; put it in a slow oven; glaze it as the genoises." [The Art of French cookery. Antoine B. Beauvilliers 1827]

King Cakes may have been a name source for the smaller Queen Cakes. Elizabeth Moxon, 1764 and Charlotte Mason, 1777 had recipes for both. Their King Cakes had currants, but were not the elaborate Twelth Night cakes.

PETTY PANS, PATTY PANS

Petty pans, patty pans, queen cake tins, little tins, teacups, or saucers were used to bake the small cakes. The patty pans were tin, glass, 'table-china,' 'chinaware', 'blue and white,' or 'stone.' 18th Century newspaper notices in American papers listed patty pans in the ships cargo. One combined "...glass patty pans and salts..." [South Carolina Gazette Dec 9, 1774]. Twelve sold for 3 Shillings in 1780 London. [Gazetteer and New Daily Advertiser] The large numbers needed can be seen in an auction at a coffee shop in London, which listed for sale 292 patty-pans, 300 bowls, 550 plates, 5000 cups & saucers and other items.[General Advertiser April 17, 1751] .

The baked goods may have been left in the petty pans. An interesting notice of a robbery at a London home included "two Apple Tarts in Stone Patty Pans." [Public Advertiser. Feb 20, 1775]. The pans could be large. Charles Carter in 1749 said to "cut twelve large apples in halves, and take out the cores, place them on a thin patty-pan, or mazareen..." He also made a Goose Pye in a Patty-pan.

"QUEEN CAKES Are made exactly the same as pound cake; there are tin moulds made particularly for that purpose; they are to be had at any tin shop; the moulds should be well buttered, and when the cakes are baked the pans should be wiped while hot, and on no account washed." [A Complete System of Cookery. John Simpson 1816]

Moxon, 1764 in two non Queen Cake recipes said to "...cut them out with queen cake tins." For Queen's Cakes Leslie suggested "...small tins of a round or oval shape are most convenient. Fill them but little more than half." [Seventy-five receipts for pastry, cakes, and sweetmeats. Eliza Leslie 1830] Other options were to "...bake in small saucers, or fluted tins made for the purpose." [The Cook and Housewife's Manual. Christian Isobel Johnstone. 1828] or "...baked in small-ribbed petty-pans." [The Practice of Cookery, Pastry, and Confectionary. Mrs. Frazer. 1820]. Rundell suggested "...beat the whole an hour; butter little tins, tea-cups, or saucers, and bake the batter in, filling only half. Sift a little fine sugar over just as you put into the oven. ...Another way. Butter small pattypans, half fill, and bake twenty minutes in a quick oven." [A New System of Domestic Cookery. Maria Rundell, 1808]

"Before you fill your tins again, scrape them well with a knife, and wash or wipe them clean. If the cakes are scorched by too hot a fire, do not scrape off the burnt parts till they have grown cold. [Leslie, Eliza. Seventy-five Receipts for pastry cakes, and sweetmeats... Philadelphia: 1832]

ICING

For Eliza Leslie's queen cakes, which also contain wine, brandy, rosewater or lemon: "Make an icing with the whites of three eggs, beaten till it stands alone, and twenty-four teaspoonfuls of the best loaf-sugar, powdered, and beaten gradually into the white of egg. Flavour it with a tea-spoonful of rose-water or eight drops of essence of lemon, stirred in at the last. Spread it evenly with a broad knife, over the top of each queen-cake, ornamenting them, (while the icing is quite wet) with red and green nonpareils, or fine sugar-sand, dropped on carefully, with the thumb and finger." [Leslie, Eliza. Seventy-five Receipts for pastry cakes, and sweetmeats... Philadelphia: 1832]

"Make an icing... and spread two coats of it on the queen cakes. Set them to dry in a warm place, but not near enough the fire to discolour the icing and cause it to crack. Queen cakes are best the day they are baked." [Leslie, Eliza. Directions for Cookery, in its Various Branches. Phila: 1840]

"...you may ice them if you please, but do not let the iceing be thicker than you may lie on with a little brush." [English Housewifry. Elizabeth Moxon 1764]

©2011 Patricia Bixler Reber
http://www.hearthcook.com/

Beaten Corn Bread

2011-03-31T20:53:00.004-04:00

While writing my research on Beaten Biscuits, I came across a recipe for Beaten Corn Bread, from WW1. I have made beaten biscuits, but have not tried it using cornmeal. It seems hard to believe cornmeal would work as the gluten in wheat does when beaten.

BEATEN CORN BREAD
Work one heaping tablespoon of butter into a cup of corn meal, a cup of flour, two teaspoons of sugar, and a teaspoon of salt. Add enough water to moisten but not to wet it enough to make it crumble. Spread on a floured board and beat with a masher for twenty minutes, folding it over often. Roll out a half-inch thick, cut in rounds, prick with a fork and bake in greased shallow pan.
American Indian Corn: (maize) a cheap, wholesome, and nutritious food, 150 Ways to Prepare and Cook It. by Charles J. Murphy. Formerly Commissioner for the State of Nebraska. NY: 1917
"Millions of people in America are earnestly seeking a way to "do their bit" toward winning the war. Here is a simple solution of the problem: Eat Corn Bread! This is an initial step toward efficient food conservation.
In 1917, Congress sent out another corn message, this time to the American people. This message urged the use of corn meal— converted into some of the palatable oldfashioned dishes—on our tables at least once a day, to release most of our wheat crop for the sustenance of the Allied armies."

Another book published during the war to save wheat by using corn:

The Corn Cook Book [WAR EDITION] Elizabeth O. Hiller. New York: 1918 "Save the wheat" is the call that has been sent out from Washington to the housekeepers of America. In response to this urgent plea, this new War Edition of the Corn Cook Book containing 200 recipes has been compiled, showing the various ways that this valuable cereal can be utilized so as to save wheat for ourselves and our Allies.

©2011 Patricia Bixler Reber
hearthcook.com

Food History Symposiums 2011

2011-03-23T20:53:00.002-04:00

There are three food symposiums in the next couple months in Chicago and near Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, Pa.

April 9 “…Drink…friendly to Nature…and accommodated to General use.” Pennsbury Manor, Morrisville, PA. Deborah's Pantry. Four speakers on Porter and the Industrialization of Brewing; Wines; Colonial Cider; and Historical Brewing: Practical Considerations for the Brewer. MORE INFO

Apr 29-My 1 "Foodways of the Great Depression." Chicago, Ill. Greater Midwest Foodways Alliance. MORE INFO

May 21 "Spices, Sugar and Isinglass." William Vicary Mansion. Freedom PA. Four speakers on Sugar; Puddings; Spices; and Cakes. MORE INFO

MORE FOOD SYMPOSIUMS 2011 HERE

©2011 Patricia Bixler Reber
hearthcook.com

Ramps

2011-03-18T10:45:00.000-04:00

Now is the time of year that Ramps begin to appear, and ramp festivals abound in West Virginia and surrounding mountain areas. For a list of festivals and dinners go HERE , which also has links to information, recipes, etc. An article on digging ramps is HERE .

There is even a ramp farm with mail order service HERE or order from Earthy Delights which also sells fiddleheads, mushrooms, and many other items.

Allium Tricoccum (three-seeded garlick). A native of North America; six inches in height, with white flowers, which are produced in July. Increased by offsets. Introduced in 1770, by Mr. W. Young.
Miller, Phillip. The Gardeners Dictionary. London: 1835 9th ed.

Allium tricoccum - Wild Leek. Bulbs ovoid, clustered, high, seated on a short rootstock, their coats fibrous-reticulated. Leaves oblong-lanceolate or elliptic, appearing early in the spring, but withering and disappearing before flowering time, 6'-12' long, 1'-2' wide, narrowed at both ends, tapering into a long petiole...

In rich woods, New Brunswick to Minnesota, south to North Carolina and Tennessee. Often grows in large beds. Ascends to 4500 ft. in North Carolina. June-July.
Britton, Nathaniel Lord. An Illustrated Flora of the Northern United States, Canada.... New York: 1896
The image is from the Britton book.

Maple sugar - Tapping the trees

2011-03-13T20:54:00.003-04:00

While at a great day-long workshop on Maple Sugaring at Genesee Country Village & Museum in New York, we learned the various ways trees were tapped through history, and made some tools such as a sumach spout, wooden spile, wooden trough, and wooden buckets.

Gash - 17th cen.

Baron La Hontan, in his book New Voyages to North America... 1683-1694, observed that the "...liquor is drawn by cutting the tree two inches deep in the wood, the cut being made sloping to the length of ten or twelve inches, at the lower end of this gash a knife is thrust into rhe tree slopingly, so that the water runs along the cut or gash, as through a gutter, and falls upon the knife which has some vessels placed underneath to receive it. [He incorrectly stated that the] gash does no harm to the tree. Of this sap they make sugar and syrup...but few of the inhabitants that have the patience to make them, for as common things are slighted so there are scarce any body but children that give themselves the trouble of gashing these trees."

Spout and Troughs - 1792

"The perforation in the tree is made with an ax or an auger; the latter is preferred from experience of its advantages: the auger is introduced about three-fourths of an inch, and in an ascending direction, that the sap may not be frozen in a slow current in the mornings or evenings, and is afterwards deepened gradually to the extent of two inches.

A spout is introduced about half an inch into the hole made by this auger, and projects from three to twelve inches from the tree. The spout is generally made of the sumach, or elder, which generally grow in the neighbourhood of the sugar trees...

[Remove the center pith by burning or picking out.]

Troughs large enough to contain three or four gallons made of white pine, or white ash, or of dried water ash, aspen, linden, poplar or common maple, are placed under the spout to receive the sap...To preserve the sap from rain and impurities of all kinds, it is a good practice to cover the troughs with a concave board, with a hole in the middle of it." An Account of the Sugar Maple-tree, of the United States, and of the methods of obtaining Sugar from it...by Benjamin Rush, M.D. Phila: 1792

Spiles - 19th cen.

Spiles or spouts were carved out of wood, or made of cast iron or tin.

For other postings on my blog on Maple Sugar HERE and Sugar HERE.

©2011 Patricia Bixler Reber
http://www.hearthcook.com/

Spun Sugar

2011-03-09T12:43:00.002-05:00

Put half a pound of water with one pound of Marshall's cane sugar in a perfectly clean copper sugar-boiler or thick stewpan; cover the pan over, bring to the boil, remove any scum as it rises from time to time, and continue boiling until the liquid forms a thick bubbled appearance (commonly called the crack) ; then take a small portion on a clean knife or spoon (or the finger may be used, but must be well wetted with cold water and used very quickly), aud plunge it immediately into cold water, and if it is then quite brittle and leaves the knife or spoon or finger quite clear it is ready for spinning. If it clings or is at all soft or pliable, continue the boiling until as above. When ready take a small portion on a fork or spoon, and rapidly throw it to and fro over a slightly oiled rolling-pin; continue until sufficient threads of sugar are obtained. [Marshall, Agnes B. Mrs. A. B. Marshall's Larger Cookery Book of Extra Recipes. London: 1902]

Careme had many recipes making use of spun sugar in his section "Of Pieces Montrees" for elaborate centerpieces involving globes, buildings, fountains etc. The roof of the image is spun sugar. [Careme, M.A. The Royal Parisian Pastrycook and Confectioner. London: 1834]

Three recipes from 1769 by Raffald are "To spin a Silver Web for covering Sweetmeats, To spin a Gold Web for covering Sweetmeats, [and] To make a Desert [sic] of Spun Sugar." To make a web or bowl, butter the bottom of an inverted bowl and taking the prepared syrup with a knife tip "...draw as quick as possible backwards and forwards, and also around the Mould, as long as it will spin from the Knife; be very careful you do not not drop the Syrup on the Web..." [Raffald, Elizabeth. The Experienced English House-keeper. Manchester: 1769]

"Temples and pavilions of four to five feet in height can be made; and when the sugar is properly boiled, and in dry weather, this work will keep several days: the author has kept some pieces quite perfect for a month, by excluding them carefully from the air. [Jarrin, William. The Italian Confectioner. London: 1829]

Lincoln's inauguration meals

2011-03-04T08:59:00.048-05:00

After Abraham Lincoln's first inauguration on March 4, 1861, he is supposed to have dined on Mock Turtle Soup, Corned Beef and Cabbage, Parsley Potatoes and Blackberry Pie. Mock Turlte Soup is actually made from a calf's head, as seen below.

The menu for the 1865 Inauguration ball dinner is from the Library of Congress online collection HERE. Click on the image for an enlarged view.

Mrs. Lincoln owned a copy of Eliza Leslie's Directions for Cookery. Leslie's recipe for Calf's Head Soup... also called Mock Turtle Soup:

MOCK TURTLE OR CALF'S HEAD SOUP

This soup will require eight hours to prepare. Take a large calf's head, and having cleaned, washed, and soaked it, put it into a pot with a knuckle of veal, and the hock of a ham, or a few slices of bacon; but previously cut off and reserve enough of the veal to make two dozen small forcemeat balls. Put the head and the other meat into as much water as will cover it very well, so that it may not be necessary to replenish it: this soup being always made very rich. Let it boil slowly four hours, skimming it carefully. As soon as no more scum rises, put in six potatoes, and three turnips, all sliced thin; with equal proportions of parsley, sweet marjoram, and sweet basil, chopped fine; and pepper and salt to your taste.

An hour before you send the meat to table, make about two dozen small force-meat balls of minced veal and beef-suet in equal quantities, seasoned with pepper and salt; sweet herbs, grated lemon-peel, and powdered nutmeg and mace. Add some beaten yolk of egg to make all these ingredients stick together. Flour the balls very well, and fry them in butter. Before you put them into the soup, take out the head, and the other meat. Cut the meat from the head in small pieces, and return it to the soup. When the soup is nearly done, stir in half a pint of Madeira. Have ready at least a dozen eggballs made of the yolks of hard boiled eggs, grated or pounded in a mortar, and mixed with a little flour and sufficient raw yolk of egg to bind them. Make them up into the form and size of boy's marbles. Throw them into the soup at the last, and also squeeze in the juice of a lemon. Let it get another slow boil, and then put it into the tureen.

We omit a receipt for real turtle soup, as when that very expensive, complicated, and difficult dish is prepared in a private family, it is advisable to hire a first-rate cook for the express purpose.

An easy way is to get it ready made, in any quantity you please, from a turtle-soup house.

Directions for Cookery. Eliza Leslie. Phila: 1840 11th ed.

Should brown gravy or mock turtle soup be spoiling, fresh-made charcoal, roughly pounded, tied in a little bag and boiled with either, will absorb the bad flavor and leave it sweet and good. The charcoal may be made by simply putting a bit of wood into the fire, and pounding the burnt part in a mortar.

The Cook's Own Book. Mrs. N.K.M. Lee and Eliza Leslie. Boston: 1840

President's cakes, pies, jumbles and pudding

2011-02-25T10:26:00.001-05:00

Numerous recipes have been named to honor the Presidents including Washington Cakes, which were discussed in a previous posting HERE. Period recipes for Washington Pie, Madison Cake, Jackson Jumbles, Harrison Cake, Tyler Pudding, and Lincoln Cake are given below. Some other presidential cakes were "Tilden and Cleveland cakes, Old Hickory cake...Old Rough-and-Ready (General Zachary Taylor) cake" [Every Where, Jan 1911, see below]

WASHINGTON PIE
Three quarters of a pound of sugar; half a pound of butter beat to a cream; add a cup of cream, half a teaspoonful of saleratus, six eggs beat up well; flavor it with lemon; add a pound of flour; bake it in round tin pans, or a wooden box-cover, about fifteen or twenty minutes; when cold, lay one on a plate, and spread over it marmalade, or any other jelly, as thick as the cake; then cover it with another cake. Frost it, or not, as you please.
Mrs. Putnam's Receipt Book. NY: 1860

The White House Cook Book, 1890 by Fanny Gillette stated: "This recipe is the same as 'Boston Cream Pie'"

MADISON CAKE
Pick clean two pounds of sultana raisins, (those that have no seeds,) and cut them in half. If you cannot procure the sultana, use the bloom or muscatel raisins, removing all the seeds. When the raisins are cut in two, dredge them thickly on all sides with flour, to prevent their sinking or clodding in the cake while baking. Sift into a pan a pound and three quarters (not more) of flour. Cut up a pound of fresh butter into a deep pan. Mix with it a pound of white lump-sugar finely powdered; and stir them together till they become a thick, white, cream. Have ready a teaspoonful of powdered nutmeg, and a table-spoonful of powdered cinnamon, and mix these spices, gradually, with the butter and sugar. Beat fourteen eggs (not fewer) till very light and thick. Then stir them, gradually, into the beaten butter and sugar, alternately with the flour and a pint of rich milk, (sour milk will be best.) Add at the last a very small tea-spoonful of pearlash, or of bi-carbonate of soda, dissolved in a large wine-glass of brandy. Give the whole a hard stirring, and then put it immediately into a deep circular tin pan, the sides and bottom of which have been first well greased with fresh butter. Set it directly into a well-heated oven, and let it bake from five to six hours, according to its size. It requires long and steady baking. When cool, cover it (top and sides) with a thick icing, made in the usual way of beaten white of egg and sugar, and flavoured with rose-water or lemon.

If the above directions are closely followed this will be found a very fine cake, and it will keep soft and fresh a week if the air is carefully excluded from it.

It will be still better, if in addition to the two pounds of raisins, you mix in two pounds of Zante currants, picked, washed, dried before the fire, and then well floured. Half a pound of citron cut into slips and floured, may also be added.
Leslie, Eliza. The Lady's Receipt Book. Philadelphia: Carey and Hart, 1847

JACKSON JUMBLES
Three tea-cups of sugar, one of butter, five of flour, one tea-spoonful of salæratus in a cup of sour cream and two eggs; bake in a quick oven; season them with the peel of a fresh lemon grated, and half a wine-glass of brandy.
Lea, Elizabeth Ellicott. Domestic Cookery. Baltimore: Cushings and Bailey, 1869

HARRISON CAKE
Two cups of molasses, one of butter, one of sugar, one of sour cream, a teaspoonful of powdered clove, two teaspoonfuls of saleratus, and two teacups of currants. The butter should be cut small and put into a sauce-pan with the molasses. Melt them thoroughly together and pour the mixture upon three or four cups of flour; then add the sugar and half the cream. Put in the rest of the cream when you have dissolved the saleratus in it. Take enough more flour to make it about as thick as cup cake; stir it ten or fifteen minutes, add the currants, and bake it in pans like cup cake. Take care that it does not burn. This is excellent cake, far better than some which is more costly.
The Young Housekeeper's Friend. Mary Cornelius. Boston: 1846

TYLER PUDDING
Four eggs, 3 coffee cups of sugar, 1 teacup of butter, 1 teacup of cream. Season with lemon and bake in a paste.
Frazer, Mary Harris. Kentucky Receipt Book. Louisville: Bradley & Gilbert Company, c1903

LINCOLN CAKE
Two eggs, two cups of sugar, half a cup of butter, one cup of sweet milk, three cups of flour, one teaspoonful of extract of lemon, one of cream tartar, and half a teaspoonful soda.
Arthur's Home Magazine. July 1869

From the Jan. 1911 issue of: Every Where. Brooklyn, NY:

"Who was ungallant enough to say the housewife takes no interest in her country's affairs? Let certain favorite cakes rise up and rebuke him. There is Martha Washington and George Washington cake. Lincoln cake and General Jackson election cake, which "once tried is always elected for a second term"; Tilden and Cleveland cakes, Old Hickory cake, Liberty, Freedom and Fourth-of-July cakes, Columbus cake, Old Rough-and-Ready (General Zachary Taylor) cake, and Phil Sheridan cake. There are hard times cake, prosperity, sixteen-to-one, goldstandard, gold, silver and gold-and-silver cakes. Politicians ought not to go hungry for sweet cakes while there is this wide range to choose from."

The photographs are from the Library of Congress

©2011 Patricia Bixler Reber
hearthcook.com

Washington Cake

2011-02-19T18:13:00.004-05:00

Washington Cakes were named for our first President and prepared for his birthday in February, which was a larger celebration in the 19th century. There were at least three types of cakes in cookbooks - with raisins and currants, with soda and brandy, and with yeast. In 1838, a confectionary store displayed a Washington cake which they claimed weighed twenty-six hundred pounds.

1) In the cookbook, Cook Not Mad, 1830, the Washington Cake contained currants and raisins. Later cookbooks which had fruited Washington Cakes include Gillette's White House Cook Book, 1887, and The Blue Grass Cook Book, 1904.

"Washington Cake. One pound of sugar, one of flour, half pound butter, four eggs, one pound of raisins, one of currants, one gill of brandy, tea cup of cream, spice to your taste."
Cook Not Mad. Watertown: 1930

2) A second type was a lighter cake with salaratus or baking soda, flavored with brandy and nutmeg. Leslie has a delicious recipe for what Elizabeth Ellicott Lea, of Maryland, called a pound cake.

"WASHINGTON CAKE. --Stir together a pound of butter and a pound of sugar; and sift into another pan a pound of flour. Beat six eggs very light, and stir them into the butter and sugar, alternately with the flour and a pint of rich milk or cream; if the milk is sour it will be no disadvantage. Add a glass of wine, a glass of brandy, a powdered nutmeg, and a table-spoonful of powdered cinnamon. Lastly, stir in a small tea-spoonful of pearl-ash, or salaratus, that has been melted in a little vinegar; take care not to put in too much pearl-ash, lest it give the cake an unpleasant taste. Stir the whole very hard; put it into a buttered tin pan, (or into little tins,) and bake it in a brisk oven. Wrapped in a thick cloth, this cake will keep soft for a week."
Leslie, Eliza. Directions For Cookery, In Its Various Branches. Phila: 1837

3) Positioned between recipes for pancakes and flannel cakes, the yeast cake in Edgeworth's The Southern Gardener and Receipt Book, 1860 asserts that "This cake derives its name from the fact that it was a great favorite at the table of General Washington; the last two years of his life, it always formed one of the delicacies of his breakfast-table, and is considered one of the standing dishes of a Virginian."

"Take two pounds of flour, one quart of milk, with an ounce of butter, heated together; put the milk and butter into the flour when it is about lukewarm; add one gill good yeast, three eggs, a teaspoonful of salt; place it in a pan over-night, and bake it in the morning in a quick oven for three-quarters of an hour."

Size. "MAMMOTH CAKE. Have you seen the great Washington Cake? If not, call at the Confectionary of Messrs. John Pease & Son, 45 Division street, foot of Christie, and view it. It is a great curiosity, weighing twenty-six hundred pounds! And, in this festive season, would almost tempt a Grahnmite! It will be cut on the 27th inst., and furnished to those who may wish a portion to grace their new-year's table."
Universalist Union, Volume 4 Dec 15, 1838

Name legend. A story from The Market Book, by Thomas De Voe, NY: 1862, recounted how a freed slave of Washington's living in NYC, celebrated his birthday: "..a most remarkable colored woman, who lived on GoldenHill, corner of Cliff and John Streets, named Mary Simpson, usually known as Mary Washington, as she had once been a most faithful slave of General Washington, whom he had set free, while President of the United States, residing in New York. After she had left Washington's family, she had opened a little store in the basement of this house, where she sold milk, butter, and eggs, with cookies, pies, and sweetmeats of her own manufacture; and she also took in washing for several bachelor gentlemen who resided in the neighborhood. She never forgot her old master's birthday, nor did she want her friends or patrons to forget it, as that day was above all the holidays with her; and she kept it most faithfully, by preparing a very large cake, which she called " Washington Cake," (once a favorite of Washington,) a large quantity of punch, then a fashionable drink, and hot coffee. These were nicely arranged upon a large table; then against the wall hung an old portrait of Washington, which graced the head of the table, and a small leather trunk, on which was marked the initials " G. W.," made of brass-head nails; both of which had been given to her by Washington himself. Every anniversary morning, some of the first men, old and young, paid a ceremonious visit to this much respected colored woman, to eat her "Washington Cake," drink her punch and coffee, praise her old master's portrait, and his many noble and heroic deeds; and thus was passed every Washington's birth-day until her death. She said she "was fearful that if she did not keep up the day by her display, Washington would be soon forgotten."

For other recipes named for presidents see my posting HERE

©2011 Patricia Bixler Reber
hearthcook.com

Maple sugaring - 1792

2011-02-15T17:59:00.002-05:00

The following is an excerpt from Dr. Rush's pamplet which may be viewed HERE or at the Library of Congress.

An Account of the Sugar Maple-tree, of the United States, and of the methods of obtaining Sugar from it, together with Observations upon the Advantages both public and private of this Sugar. In a Letter to Thomas Jefferson, Esq. Secretary of State of the United States…
by Benjamin Rush, M.D. Phila: 1792. 16p.

The Acer Sucharinum of Linnaeus, or the Sugar Maple-tree, grows in great quantities in the western counties of all the Middle States of the American Union. Those which grow in New-York and Pennsylvania yield the Sugar in a greater quantity that [sic] those which grow on the waters of the Ohio.

It is not injured by tapping; on the contrary, the oftener it is tapped, the more syrup is obtained from it. … From twenty-three gallons and one quart of sap procured in twenty hours from only two of these dark coloured trees, Arthur Noble, Esq. of the state of New-York obtained four pounds and thirteen ounces of good grained sugar. … The season for tapping the trees is in February, March, and April, according to the weather which occurs in these months. Warm days and frosty nights are most favourable to a plentiful discharge of sap. …

These are three methods of reducing the sap to sugar. 1. By freezing it… 2. By spontaneous evaporation...and 3. By boiling. … The sugar is improved by straining the sap through a blanket or cloth, either before or after it is half boiled. Butter, hogs lard or tallow are added to the sap in the kettle to prevent its boiling over, and lime, eggs or new-milk are mixed with it in order to clarify it. …

I am disposed to believe that the most productive method both in quantity and profit of obtaining this sugar will be by the labour of pivate [sic] families. For a great number of years many hundred private families in New-York and Pennsylvania have supplied themselves plentifully with this sugar during the whole year. I have heard of many families who have made from two to four hundred pounds in a year; and of one man who sold six hundred pounds, all made with his own hands in one season. …

A comparative view of this sugar has been frequently made with the sugar which is obtained from the West-India sugar cane, with respect to its quality price, and the possible or probable quantity that can be made of it in the United States, each of which I shall consider in order. …

But the profit of the maple tree is not confined to its sugar. It affords a most agreeable melasses, [sic] and an excellent vinegar. The sap which is suitable for these purposes is obtained after the sap which affords the sugar has ceased to flow, so that the manufactories of these different products of the maple tree, by succeeding, do not interfere with each other. …

Sugar affords the greatest quantity of nourishment in a given quantity of matter of any substance in nature; of coarse it may be preserved in less room in our houses, and may be consumed in less time… [it is] said that sugar injures the teeth, but this opinion now has so few advocates, that it does not deserve a serious refutation.

Sugar Production, Sugar Mills, Sugar Plantations

2011-02-10T13:27:00.003-05:00

The site, Slave Life in the Americas: A Visual Record, HERE has many terrific images of sugar mills and plantations. Click on each image for a larger version.

HARVESTING THE CANE - LOUISIANA 1873

JUICE BEING EXTRACTED FROM THE CANE IN THE VERTICAL MILLS FLOWS DOWN THE PIPE TO THE BOILING CAULDRONS. FRENCH WEST INDIES 1667

THE CANE IS PRESSED IN THE VERTICAL ROLLERS POWERED BY A WATER WHEEL. THE CAULDRONS WHICH BOIL DOWN THE JUICE ARE ON THE RIGHT. BRAZIL 1682

SUGAR MILL POWERED BY WATER WHEEL, SURINAM, 1839

THE DIDEROT SKETCH SHOWS THE SYRUP ENTERING THE BOILING ROOM AT THE LEFT, THEN INTO THE BOILING CAULDRONS, 1762

THE CONES, WHERE THE SUGAR SYRUP IS PLACED TO DRAIN INTO CONTAINERS BELOW THE CONES, 1762

Chocolate making equipment

2011-02-05T16:29:00.009-05:00

This posting is about some of the historic or reproduction equipment needed to make chocolate at home or museum setting. For suggestions on modern equipment, the website Chocolate Alchemy describes the process of roasting, grinding, conching, etc. on a small scale. He suggests using the Champion Juicer to grind the nibs. For more information on making cocoa see Cocoa and Chocolate Beverages

Very briefly [more details with period pictures will be posted at a later time], chocolate is made from the seeds of the cacao tree. The seed pods are picked, opened, and the seeds fermented for a few days then dried. The beans are roasted in a pan, pot or coffee/chocolate roaster [see below] at the hearth. The shells are removed leaving the usable chocolate "nibs." The nibs must be ground down into a paste by using a metate and mano, stone or steel, or in a choclate mill. Further grinding, conching, results in a smooth texture. The 19th century brought the cocoa press resulting in the seperation of powder from cocoa butter.

In the 1762 Diderot image of a chocolate factory in Paris, the beans are roasting in the pot to the left. Once cooled, the shells are seperated from the beans in a flat basket in the front. The nibs are worked on the stone under the window.

Beans and nibs. I have found nibs locally, and unroasted beans are available on line at various sites. One is the above mentioned Chocolate Alchemy

Roaster. If you get unroasted beans, use a coffee or chocolate roaster or a pan over the coals. Peter Goebel of Goosebay makes a reproduction roaster, at right.

Metates or chocolate stones with coals underneath. The nibs are crushed and eventually form a smooth liquid on the warm stone. The first sketch is from 1687 in Nicolas de Blegny's Le Bon Usage du Thé, du Caffé, et du Chocolat. The photo is at Colonial Williamsburg. Both have a container with hot coals under the metate.

Metates can be found less expensively in Mexico, California and the southwest markets, or for alot more at Gourmet Sleuth [out of stock right now] here To heat up the metate, you need to put coals in a container of metal or pottery under it.

Chocolate Pots. Although from early 1800s, the sketch shows how the molinillo worked inside the pot with the handle protruding through the hole in the lid. It is agitated to mix the cocoa with the liquid and form foam.

Reproduction pots can be obtained from Goosebay which has two styles of tin lined copper pots, c1740 with European style muller; and a French/Dutch c1703 from Fortress Louisbourg. For repro oaxacan and porcelain styles click Here where you can also purchase molinillos and metates.

Mortar and Pestle. "The Cacao... a Seed... when they have been divested of their Shells by Fire, and are afterwards peeled, and roasted in a Bason, before a moderate Fire, they are pounded in a very hot Mortar. The Americans bruise them with an Iron Cylinder, on a flat Stone made very hot; they are then formed into a Paste, which is afterwards boiled with Sugar; and this is called plain Chocolate. But if it is to be enriched with a fine Odour, four Pounds of this Paste, and three of powdered Sugar, are worked together in a Mortar, or on some Stone..." [Spectacle de la Nature. Noël Antoine Pluche. 1766]
"The Cacao seeds are roasted like coffee ... When the kernels are perfectly purified, they are pounded in a mortar of heated iron over burning charcoal, and thus reduced to a coarse paste, which is set to cool on a marble slab. A second rolling is bestowed with a steel cylinder on a smooth freestone, and as soon as the paste becomes sufficiently smooth, it is mixed with sugar in a hot basin and poured into tin moulds..." [The encyclopædia of geography, Hugh Murray. Phila: 1837]

©2011 Patricia Bixler Reber
hearthcook.com

Sugar Chest, Sugar Desk, Sugar Table

2011-02-01T21:06:00.006-05:00

Sugar casters can be seen in a previous posting on Mustard Casters. I'll post more on sugar holders on the table shortly. For storage, some beautiful pieces of furniture were made, particularly in the south, as detailed in several articles [see below].

SUGAR CHESTS

SUGAR DESKS

SUGAR TABLES

For information about the various types of sugar funiture, click on the following links. The sugar chest/box is from the book Neat Pieces: The Plain-style Furniture of Nineteenth-century Georgia. 2006. The first desk is http://www.liveauctioneers.com/item/6084347 the second sugar desk is from the Speed Art Museum exhibition [last link]. The table is from: http://www.claudeandsharonbaker.com/Furniture.html

An article on sugar chests and sugar boxes

Sugar Chests in Middle Tennessee and Central Kentucky, lengthy article in Journal of Early Southern Decorative Arts, Winter, 1997

Photographs of antique sugar chests at Google Images

For Safekeeping: The Kentucky Sugar Chest, 1790-1850, a 2007 exhibition at the Speed Art Museum in Kentucky

©2011 Patricia Bixler Reber
hearthcook.com

Food Conference in NYC - IACP

2011-01-31T21:47:00.001-05:00

Feb 18-19. The International Association of Culinary Professionals (IACP) conference. New York City. Talks will be offered in the following four areas/topics/ tracks: Food Writing in an Electronic and Digital Age; The Foods of New York; School Food; and Farm to Table: Urban and Rural Foodways.

www.rsvpbook.com/event.php?430348

Mustard Flour, Mustard Pots, Mustard Casters

2011-01-23T17:45:00.008-05:00

In a previous post on Mustard Balls and Cannon Balls, HERE I wrote about mustard balls, sold commerically or homemade from period recipes, which kept better than mustard seeds or powder. It was time consuming to crush the mustard seeds at home in a mortar and pestle or with a cannon ball in a wooden bowl or on a quern.

After 1720, the processing of the mustard seeds in a mill resulted in a fine flour - the flower of mustard - known commercially as Durham Mustard. Later, when the processing moved to Leeds, the name Durham was retained. The mustard was sold as dry powder or as a "paste."

During the 18th century, china and silver casters were produced, often labeled for sugar, pepper, and mustard. As seen in the photo above, taken at Colonial Williamsburg, the front three casters with holes in the top are labeled Mustard (on left side) Sugar (center) and Pepper. I assume that powdered mustard was in the caster with holes on the top and boxes, rather than the prepared (liquid) version, since liquids like oil and vinegar were in taller bottles with stoppers. However, thus far I have been unable to find any references from the 18th century describing using the powder at the table. The popular writer but not a food historian, Bill Bryson, wrongly states that there is no proof mustard was in the third caster in his newest book, At Home. [see below]

Mustard pots with little spoons contained dry or prepared mustard [liquid], as did the mustard bottles in the 19th century cruet sets. The cruet stand c1770, at right [Leeds Museums, Bridgeman Art Library website] contains a creamware mustard pot with a lid, between the sugar and pepper. "The patent mustard [prepared/paste] is by many preferred, and it is perhaps as cheap, being always ready; and if the pots are returned, three-pence is allowed for each." [Rundell, Maria Eliza Ketelby. A New System of Domestic Cookery. 1814]

Blind Casters for mustard had a flap over the bottom portion and the outside top could be pierced or not. The dry mustard was spooned out and mixed with vinegar. The mustard castor was from c1670s a "...receptacle for serving dry unprepared mustard... the domed cover is either unpierced ('blind') or is blocked with an interior sleeve (now often missing)..." [Newman, Harold. An Illustrated Dictionary of Silverware. London: 1987] The flap under the piereced or unpierced covers would lift up as in one caster which had "...a removable sleeve that effectively blocked the pierced holes. The cover is held in place by a bayonet joint formed of two lugs soldered to its rim and a notched rib on the upper body of the caster....Before the eighteenth century mustard was served as a dry powder, spooned from the caster and mixed with vinegar." [English, Irish, & Scottish Silver at the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute]

The photo on the left is labeled a William IV hinged blind caster,1834 with an indent for the spoon, on the Bonhams website.

Manufacture of Durham mustard. "Prior to 1720 there was no such luxury as mustard, in its present form, at our tables. At that time the seed was only coarsely pounded in a mortar, as coarsely separated from the integument, and in that rough state prepared for use. In the year I have mentioned, it occurred to an old woman of the name of Clements, resident at Durham, to grind the seed in a mill, and to pass the meal through the several processes which are resorted to in making flour from wheat. The secret she kept for many years to herself, and, in the period of her exclusive possession of it, supplied the principal parts of the kingdom, and in particular the metropolis,with this article; and George the First stamped it with fashion by his approval. Mrs. Clements as regularly twice a year travelled to London, and to the principal towns throughout England, for orders, as any tradesman's rider, of the present day; and the old lady contrived to pick up not only a decent pittance, but what was then thought a tolerable competence.— From this woman's residing at Durham, it acquired the name of Durham mustard." [Mechanics' Magazine and Journal. 1825]

York. "A Considerable quantity of mustard is sown in the neighbourhood of York, and fields of it may be met with in other parts of the Riding. It is prepared for use in the city of York, where there are mills and machinery for the purpose; and it is afterwards sold under the name of Durham mustard; being prepared after the manner there practised, or as was there first done."

[Agricultural Surveys: Yorkshire, North-Riding, 1800]

Adulteration of Mustard. "Genuine mustard, either in powder, or in the state of a paste ready for use, is perhaps rarely to be met with in the shops. The article sold under the name of genuine Durham mustard, is usually a mixture of mustard and common wheaten flour, with a portion of Cayenne pepper, and a large quantity of bay salt, made with water into a paste, ready for use. Some manufacturers adulterate their mustard with radish seed and pease flour. The salt and Cayenne pepper contribute materially to the keeping of ready-made mustard, sold in pots." [Accum, Friedrich. A Treatise on Adulterations of Food. London: 1820]

Prepared Mustard "...is best when nearly fresh made. It is prepared in a variety of ways;—plain with boiling water;—mild with milk or cream, or with the addition of a little sugar;—pungent with water in which garlic, horse-radish, &c. is boiled; it is also prepared with the flavoured vinegars, with Cayenne, with catsup, and even with spirits. The less made at a time the better; but it will keep for some days in a small jar closely stopt." [Johnstone, Christian. The Cook and Housewife's Manual, by Margaret Dods. Edinburgh: 1826]

Mustard casters do exist.

"Traditional cruet stands came with two glass bottles with stoppers, for oil and vinegar, and three matching casters - that is, bottles with perforated tops for sprinkling (or casting) flavorings onto food. Two of the casters contained salt and pepper, but what went into the third caster is unknown. It is generally presumed to have been dried mustard, but that is really because no one can think of anything more likely. "No satisfactory alternative has ever been suggested" is how the food historian Gerard Brett has put it. In fact, there is no evidence to suggest that mustard was ever desired or utilized in such ready fashion by diners at any time in history." [Bryson, Bill. At Home: A Short History of Private Life. 2010 excerpt from Google Books]

Mustard Balls and Cannon Balls

2011-01-16T18:10:00.013-05:00

Mustard Balls were made from pounded mustard seeds, spices, and a binder such as wine, vinegar, honey or raisins. The balls were then dried in the sun or warm oven, and thus would "...keep better than mustard-seed or flour [ground mustard] at sea, and are easily dissolved." [Domestic, 1827] To use, thin pieces were sliced and soaked in vinegar, wine or verjuice. Tewkesbury was so famous for its mustard balls that Shakespeare mentioned it in a play. For more information on dry mustard powder, mustard flour, mustard casters and pots see my posting here.

Ingredients. An Italian medieval recipe by Platina, 1465, combined pounded raisins with the mustard, cinnamon and cloves to form small balls, which were dried on a board. A century later, a Dutch cookbook author, Vorselman, mixed the mustard powder with vinegar and a little flour, but no raisins. By the 18th century, the mustard was mixed with canary wine and honey. [Salmon, 1711; Nott, 1723] Nott had a second recipe - for Mustard Cakes with cinnamon, canary and honey. An 1827 recipe had the widest range of ingredients: spices, turmeric, fenugreek, cummin, or rice flour, and vinegar & sugar or wine & honey. [Domestic, 1827]

Size. A 17th century travellor wrote: "Mustard off this place [Tewkesbury] is much spoken off, Made upp in balles as bigge as henns eggs, att 3d and 4d each, allthough a Farthing worth off the ordinary sort will give better content in my opinon, this beeing in sight and tast Much like the old dried thicke scurffe thatt sticks by the sides off a Mustard pott..." [The Travels of Peter Mundy in Europe and Asia, 1608-1667]

Mustard balls may have been the size of canon balls (about 3 inches). A quote from a gardening book in the 18th century stated "...make it up in large Balls about as big as Cannon or Mustard Balls." [Switzer, 1731] The calibers of cannon shot of that period were "3; 3.5; 4; 4.5; 5; 5.5; 6 inches ; which answer nearly to a 4, 6, 9, 13, 18, 24, and 31 pounders." [Muller, 1768] The caliber was fixed in 1726 for iron, brass canon differed, and shot, such as grape shot or case-shot were smaller, ranging from 26 oz to 1 oz.

Another quote referencing the size is from the testimony of Tutus Oates, who fabricated the 'Popish Plot' story to kill King Charles II, whose heir, James II was Catholic. "That the deponent [Oates] did on the 22nd of August, [1678] about nine o'clock, meet with Blundell ; and seeing him have a bag, asked him what he had and he replyed, Tewxbury mustard-balls, a notable biting sauce, and would furnish Westminster when be had enough of them. The deponent saith, that by Tewxbury mustard-balls, we are to understand, fire-balls." [Howell, 1816]

Cannon Ball. The grinding ball itself was also refered to as a Mustard Ball. In Gloucester county "...few farm-houses were without a cannon ball and bowl." [Rudge, 1807] Cookbook authors suggested using a cannon ball or polished cannon ball to grind the mustard seed into powder. The cook could use "...a Bowl with a Cannon-Bullet...or in a Mortar with a Pestle." [Nott, 1723] It could take "...an Hour in the Ceremony of grinding it in a wooden Bowl, and an Iron Cannon-Bullet, according to the old custom..." [Bradley, 1736] In a recipe to make curd pudding "...grind it with a mustard ball in a bowl, or beat it in a marble mortar..." [Moxon, 1790] The seeds could be ground on a "...mustard quern, or a bowl with a cannon-bullet..." [May, 1660] A photo of a cannonball, mustard seeds and a quern, with a talk by Ivan Day, is available here.

Tewkesbury. He looks as if he had lived on Tewksbury mustard, was an old English proverb. "Tewksbury is a fair Market-town in this County, noted for the mustard-balls made there, and sent into other parts. This is spoken partly of such, who always have a sad, severe, and tetrick countenance. ... Partly of such as are snappish, captious, and prone to take exceptions." [Ray, 1737] "...the Mustard Balls made here, so proper for clearing the Head.... 'Tis very biting, and therefore has occasion'd this Proverb for a sharp Fellow..." [Magna, 1720]

Shakespeare wrote another reference to Tewkesbury mustard in his play Henry IV. "Shakespeare speaking of one with a sad, severe countenance, uses the simile, [his wit's] As thick as Tewkesbury Mustard." [Dyde, 1790]
By 1772, a travel book stated "...there is no such [mustard] trade carried on at present." [Spencer, 1772]

Small mustard balls from a period receipt are made by Clarissa Dillon, and may be obtained from Deborah's Pantry.

For more information, see my blog posting: Mustard Flour, Mustard Pots, Mustard Casters here.

*******
To make Mustard Balls 1723
Grind the Seed very fine, then make a Paste with Honey, and a little Canary; make it into Balls, and set them to dry in the Sun, or a gentle Oven, and keep them for use.

When you would use it, shave some of it very thin, put to it Vinegar and a little Salt.

To make Mustard in Cakes
Take four Ounces of Seamy, an Ounce of Cinnamon, beat them with Vinegar and Hony very fine, in a Mortar, make it into a Paste, and then into little Cakes, dry them in an Oven, or in the Sun, when you would use them, dissolve them in Vinegar, Verjuice, or Wine.
Nott, John. The Cooks and Confectioners Dictionary. 1723

**********
Mustard Balls 1827.

Clean wash and rub in a cloth the best mustard-seed, and steep it in vinegar, or wine and salt, for a night; pound it in a mortar, and rub it through a sieve ; add any spices well pounded with turmeric, fenugreek, cummin, or fine rice flour, and make it into balls with sugar and vinegar, or wine and honey, and dry them in the sun: when wanted for use, dissolve them in warm wine or vinegar; by this method, the ingredients are completely incorporated. These balls keep better than mustard-seed or flour at sea, and are easily dissolved.

To prepare mustard-seed for sea-store, kiln-dry it, to destroy the germ, steep it in spirits, and dry it again, pack it with pepper, from which it can be easily sifted; or pack raisins or a few currants along with it. So prepared, it will keep any length of time in pure sugar.
Domestic Economy, and Cookery, for Rich and Poor, by a lady. London: 1827

*******
Works cited
Bradley, Richard. The Country Housewife and Lady's Director. pt 2. London: 1732
Domestic Economy, and Cookery, for rich and poor, by a lady, London: 1827
Dyde, William. The History and Antiquities of Tewkesbury. Tewkesbury: 1790
Howell, T.B. ed. A complete collection of state trials... London: 1816 Vol 6 1661-1678
Magna Britannia et Hibernia... by Thomas Cox, William Camden. Glocestershire: 1720
May, Robert. The Accomplisht Cook. 1660
Moxon, Elizabeth. English Housewifry. Leeds: 1752
Muller, John. A Treatise of Artillery. London: 1768
Mundy, Peter. The Travels of Peter Mundy in Europe and Asia, 1608-1667. Hakluyt Society, 1925
Nott, John. The Cooks and Confectioners Dictionary. London: 1723
Platina's De Honesta Voluptate et Valetudine. 1465
Ray, John. A Compleat Collection of English Proverbs. London: 1737
Rudge, Thomas. General view of the Agriculture of the county of Gloucester. London: 1807
Salmon, William. The Family Dictionary. London: 1711
Spencer, Nathaniel. The Complete English Traveller. London: 1772
Switzer, Stephen. The Practical Fruit-Gardener. London: 1731
Vorselman, Gheeraert. Eenen Nyeuwen Coock Boeck. 1560

©2011 Patricia Bixler Reber
Hearthcook.com

Puddin'

2011-01-11T09:45:00.000-05:00

In the Frederick, MD and Lancaster, PA areas with a strong German heritage, scrapple and pudding is sold by butchers. While I have eaten scrapple all my life, I never tried pudding, or meat pan pudding.

Home cooks in the past put bits and scraps of pork in a container and covered with grease/fat after each addition. It was a means of combining scraps and to preserve until ready to use. Now, butchers put small pieces into an aluminum loaf pan and cover it all at once.

Older folks cook down the puddin' and serve it over hominy, waffles, toast or fried potatoes, or make into a pie. It can be topped with King Syrup or syrup. Although pudding looks like scrapple, it does not fry as a solid piece, but as small pieces in melted fat. Pudding can be cooked in a steamer insert with the fat dripping into the water.

©2011 Patricia Bixler Reber
hearthcook.com

Women and Medicine exhibit at the Folger, DC

2011-01-07T18:21:00.001-05:00

Beyond Home Remedy: Women, Medicine, and Science exhibit is at the Folger Shakespeare Library until May 14. As usual the Folger staff has set up a marvelous exhibit. They even borrowed the manuscript book which Karen Hess used to make "Martha Washington's cookbook." For those unable to get to DC some information on each display is given in a phone audio tour at 202-595-1844. Click on the picture above to the right, for larger view of numbers... 43 Hannah Wooley; 46 Countess and Caretaker; 50 Cuting the King, and many more interesting topics.

"Syrup of violets, plague water, a drink made from snails – these are some of the “healthy” recipes concocted by women in Shakespeare’s England that will be featured in this fascinating look at historic medicine. This exhibition highlights women at all levels of society—from the Countess of Kent and Lady Castleton to Hannah Woolley and Mrs. Anne Coates—who were known to practice medicine. Manuscript, text, and image from the Folger’s collection bring the work of these women to life, while natural history specimens and instruments from the Smithsonian help to demonstrate the elaborate nature of the recipes women constructed and shared with one another."

Hard Apple Cider

2011-01-04T12:33:00.000-05:00

A hard cider workshop will be held at Ciderworks, near Frederick, MD on the first Saturday morning of the month, Jan-July. For more infomation: http://distillerylaneciderworks.com/2010/11/cider-making-class / and see below.

Other places which offered hard apple cider classes using heirlooms in the past:

Spitjack Shrewsbury, MA http://www.spitjack.com
Scott Farm, VT http://www.scottfarmvermont.com/index.html
Heritage Harvest Festival at Monticello, VA http://heritageharvestfestival.com
Albemarle CiderWorks VA http://www.albemarleciderworks.com
Foggy Ridge Cider VA http://www.foggyridgecider.com/events/special-events.php

"Ciderworks is happy to announce... a 3 hour seminar on the soup to nuts of (legally) preparing hard cider at home.
- Selection of apple cultivar
- Bittersharps, sharps, and bittersweets, and how they are used in cider
- Fermentation processes, yeast selection, measuring acidity, secondary fermentation
- Importance of sanitation
- Tasting, blending the finished product

Participants will receive cider sufficient to make one case of cider, a fermentation container, an airlock and yeast. The twelve participants will also be able to taste test an array of hard ciders. The cost is $100 for the three-hour course. Pre-registration and a $25 non-refundable deposit are required."
*****
Image from National Ag Library USDA collection: http://www.nal.usda.gov/speccoll/collectionsguide/mssindex/pomology/apples/apples_list2.shtml

Molasses Stew

2011-01-01T12:10:00.001-05:00

Marion Harland, the pseudonym of Mary Virginia Hawes Terhune, was born (1830) and raised in Virginia. When married she moved north and continued writing fiction, nonfiction and cookbooks. The following is an excerpt from her book, Marion Harland's autobiography: the story of a long life, 1910. This continues the Candy pulls and Candy stew posting.

On Christmas night we had a "molasses stew." We have learned to say "candy-pull" since then. A huge cauldron of molasses was boiled in the kitchen—a detached building of a story-and-a-half, standing about fifty feet from "the house." Gilbert—the dining-room servant, who would be "a butler" now—brought it into the dining-room when it was done to a turn, and poured it into great buttered platters arranged around the long table. All of us, girls and boys, had pinned aprons or towels over our festive garments, and put back our cuffs from our wrists. My mother set the pace in the pulling. She had a reputation for making the whitest and most spongy candy in the county, and she did it in the daintiest way imaginable. Buttering the tips of her fingers lightly, she drew carefully from the surface of the platter enough of the cooling mixture for a good "pull." In two minutes she had an amber ribbon, glossy and elastic, that bleached fast to cream-color under her rapid, weaving motion, until she coiled or braided completed candy—brittle, dry, and porous—upon a dish lined with paper. She never let anybody take the other end of the rope; she did not butter her fingers a second time, and used the taper tips alone in the work, and she had the candy on the dish before any of the others had the sticky, scalding mass in working order. We dipped our fingers again and again in butter and, when hard bestead, into flour, which last resort my mother scorned as unprofessional, and each girl had a boy at the other end of her rope. It was graceful work when done secundum artem. The fast play of hands; the dexterous toss and exchange of the ends of shining strands that stiffened too soon if not handled aright; the strain upon bared wrists and strong shoulders as the great ropes hardened; the laughing faces bent over the task; the cries of feigned distress as the immature confectionery became sticky, or parted into strings, under careless manipulation; the merry peals of laughter at defeat or success—made the Christmas frolic picturesque and gay. I wondered then, and I have often asked since, why no painter has ever chosen as a subject this one of our national pastimes.

Candy Stew, Candy Pull and other pull parties

2010-12-27T12:58:00.003-05:00

Candy pulls, candy stews, molasses pulls, sorghum-stews, and a taffy-pulling were popular in the 19th century.

One definition, from A Dictionary of Slang...1897 was: "Candy-pull (American), a candypull is a party of both sexes at which molasses or sugar is boiled and pulled by two persons (whose hands are buttered) to give it proper consistency, and then mixed and pulled again, till it becomes true candy." As described puckishly in the magazine Puck, "The necessary materials and plant are a goodsized warm kitchen, a number of active young women, aged from fifteen upward, several dudes and non-dudes—none over twenty-five — a large supply of white aprons, a larger supply of table-napkins, a well-heated cooking-range, two or three copper stew-pans." [Puck. NY: March 6, 1884]

'Candy Stews,' the old styled term, appeared in a few southern works. The social event could be a spontanious event to entertain children and unexpected guests as when Lucy Breckingridge returned home with guests on a Friday in October, 1863. [Lucy Breckinridge of Grove Hill: the Journal of a Virginia girl, 1862-1864]. Candy Stews were also well planned with meals and activities, for social or birthday parties, or as rewards for school, church and other groups.

"Moses Parker conducted school here at an early date, [c1860] and at the close of the session gave his pupils and friends a "candy stew." [Publications of the Mississippi Historical Society, 1902] Vasser College held freshmen candy-pulls [1875], it was suggested for Christmas Socials [Luther League Review, Lutheran Church in America, 1920], and even among a listing of incentives in the chapter "Candy Pull System in the Church" [Church Folks by Ian Maclaren. 1900]

A Virginia candy stew could be more involved, with supper and games, as described in the book, Short stories, 1894 and Which: right or wrong? by Mary Leona Moreland. NY: 1883 [condensed below]. A detailed description of a Christmas molasses stew by the famed writer and cookbook author, Marion Harland, will appear in a later blog posting. The social event involved food [turkey, Sally Lunn, pickles, waffles; hot cream biscuits, pies, cakes, big dumpling pie], games [forfeits, clap in & clap out; Patty Bump, Queen Dido's Dead, and Blind Man's Buff] and twisting the molasses into wreaths, sticks, chains, swans, baskets and braids, then wrapped in paper to take home.

The popularity of the Candy Pulls varied according to The Dictionary of Slang [1897], which stated the ..."old-fashioned amusement known as a candy-pull has had more or less of a revival in society this season. ... it was quite popular about twenty years ago as a society entertainment, but it seemed to run its course and died away. At that period candy-pulls were given in some of the most aristocratic mansions on Fifth Avenue, and the rollicking scenes were oftentimes quite democratic in the fun, however full-dressed might have been their presentation."

As for the type of candies for a candy pull, Table Talk, vol. 6, 1891 recommended plain molasses candy, yellow jack, and cream candy. The article's recipe to make Molasses Taffy/yellow jack included boiling New Orleans molasses, then ..."turn into greased, shallow pans to cool. When partly cold mark into squares, or it may be pulled until a light yellow, and then it is 'yellow jack.' ... The 'yellow jack' may be twisted into thick sticks; it may be braided, or it may be pulled out in long, rope-like pieces, and cut with an old pair of scissors into little drops."

In 1847, Mrs. Webster's Improved Housewife had a recipe for Molasses Candy which included: "If you wish to make it yellow, take some out of the tin pan while it is yet warm, and pull it out into a thick string... it will gradually become of a light yellow color, and of a spongy consistency. When it is quite yellow, roll it into sticks, twist two sticks together, and cut them off smoothly at both ends. Or you may variegate it by twisting together a stick that is quite yellow and one that remains brown."

The pans of hot molasses were put in a cool pantry or were setting all about the room on chairs and tables to cool. In the story "Jo Suggs at the Candy Stew" in Southern Broad-axe, 1859, Jo sat on one of the pans. Mothers and cooks often disliked the mess that could result on the floor and clothing, which is why Puck suggested "...a large supply of white aprons, a larger supply of table-napkins." [Puck. NYC: March 6, 1884] "All of us, girls and boys, had pinned aprons or towels over our festive garments, and put back our cuffs from our wrists." Marion Harland's Autobiography: the story of a long life. 1910[Mary Virginia Hawes Terhune. 1830 VA -1922 NY]

Nuts - peanuts or pecans - could also be used in the candy at a Candy Stew. "If you think you could hook a saucepan of molasses from old Esther, let's have a candy stew upon the grate here. I didn't mean to tell you yet, but I've got a lot of peanuts in my pocket...When we had shelled the peanuts and added them to the boiling syrup, I found a tin plate, and Jimmie poured into it the contents of the saucepan....leaving the plate in the open window." [St. Nicholas: a monthly magazine for boys and girls, 1896] "If you prefer the candy with ground nuts, roast a quart of them, shell and blanch them, and stir them in gradually, a few minutes before you take it from the fire." [The Improved Housewife. Mrs. Webster 1847]

Molasses, sugar or sorghum could be cooked down into candy. "Before the war had progressed very far, the growing scarcity of sugar led to the extensive cultivation of sorghum which served well to substitute molasses and syrups... in Virginia. The sorghum crop was abundant in the fall of 1864 and notably so in the counties below Petersburg. Once, in October or November, 1864... a message came to me from Benson asking permission for his men to attend a candy stew to which they had been invited by some young ladies living very near where they were stationed." [A Lieutenant of Cavalry in Lee's Army. George William Beale. 1918]

Taffy pulling hooks, attached to the wall, enabled one person to pull the candy. For pictures and a short film, click HERE

***************

Short Stories: a magazine of select fiction 1894:
I met Elsie for the first time at a "candy-stew." This form of entertainment was very popular in Beulah, [Virginia] as they generally included a sumptuous repast.
...Mrs. Jones made me take her [Elsie] in to supper, and I was so overcome with pleasure that the delights of roast turkey, Sally Lunn, sweet pickles and waffles seemed pale by comparison. ... After supper we played such old-fashioned games as forfeits, and clap in and clap out, while we were waiting for the boiling molasses to arrive at the right consistency for moulding into wreaths and sticks of goldenbrown candy.
... We were all very merry, as, with hands covered with flour, we twisted the dark, sticky masses of candy into golden bands and chains, and with much applause the more skillful ones fashioned swans, baskets and braids.
...[they went home] with a bountiful supply of candy wrapped in paper...

Which: right or wrong? by Mary Leona Moreland NY: 1883Bridget brought out the big kettle, with the sugared molasses for the candy, giving at the same time one of her usual warnings, " Don't forget to set it in the sink, when you take it off." The desired promise was given, and for once kept. As the occasion was in honor of Cutis's birthday, he was the cook of candy.

There was a constant demand for snow to test the candy. Finally, it was pronounced done, ready for the working of it. What a time they had! Then it was cut evenly by the girls, and laid in buttered platters. It was then borne in triumph to the cool pantry.

"It's immense I" cried all, when it was brought from the pantry. This treat was followed by the supper of hot cream biscuit — such as never found save in a farm-house — with honey, huge pies, and all kinds of cake. The big dumpling pie was placed ' in the middle of the table.

After supper, they played some of the games, common specially among country people, "Patty Bump," "Queen Dido's Dead," and "Blind Man's Buff!"

The Improved Housewife. Mrs. Webster 1847:
Molasses Candy.
Take two quarts of West India molasses, one pound of brown sugar, and the juice of two large lemons, or a teaspoonful of strong essence of lemon ; mix, and boil the molasses and sugar three hours, over a moderate fire, (when done it will cease boiling, and be crisp when cold.) While boiling, stir it frequently, and see it does not burn. After boiling two hours and a half, stir in the lemon juice. It will be improved by grating in the yellow part of the rind so fine as not to be visible when boiled. If the lemon is put in too soon, all the taste will be boiled out. When it is quite done, butter a square tin pan, and turn the mixture in to cool. If you prefer the candy with ground nuts, roast a quart of them, shell and blanch them, and stir them in gradually, a few minutes before you take it from the fire. Almonds may be blanched, cut in pieces, and stirred in raw, when the sugar and molasses have just done boiling. If you wish to make it yellow, take some out of the tin pan while it is yet warm, and pull it out into a thick string, between the thumb and fore-finger of both hands. Extend your arms widely as you pull the candy backwards and forwards. By repeating this a long time, it will gradually become of a light yellow color, and of a spongy consistency. When it is quite yellow, roll it into sticks, twist two sticks together, and cut them off smoothly at both ends. Or you may variegate it by twisting together a stick that is quite yellow and one that remains brown.

Table talk, Volume 6 1891:
Plain molasses candy, yellow jack, cream candy, are all appropriate for candy pulls, in fact, the only kinds that are usually pulled. However, -chocolate caramels and nougat candies may also be made. ...

PLAIN MOLASSES TAFFY.
Put a quart of New Orleans molasses in a large saucepan; allow plenty of room for boiling. Boil thirty minutes, stirring constantly to prevent overflow. If you find it coming quickly to the top of the saucepan it is better to lift it for a moment. After it has been boiling for thirty minutes, add a half teaspoonful of bi carbonate of soda, and continue boiling and trying in cold water until it is brittle and will not stick to the teeth. Add a tablespoonful of lemon juice and turn into greased, shallow pans to cool. When partly cold mark into squares, or it may be pulled until a light yellow, and then it is "yellow jack."

In pulling candy, see that the hands are well oiled, and that you have a good, strong hook securely fastened in the window frame. When the candy is sufficiently cool to handle, take it in your hands, throw it over the hook and pull towards you. When you find it is likely to break from the hook, throw it over again, and so continue until it is finished.

A word of caution: Grasp the candy firmly in "your hands, make the candy move and not the hands, or before it is half done the palms of your hands will be full of blisters.

The "yellow jack" may be twisted into thick sticks; it may be braided, or it may be pulled out in long, rope-like pieces, and cut with an old pair of scissors into little drops.

©2010 Patricia Bixler Reber
hearthcook.com

Navy Holiday Menus

2010-12-22T18:30:00.001-05:00

There are several menus from ships or on shore facilities listed at: Holiday Menus. Naval History & Heritage Command. DC Navy Yard 1905-1969

The USS Oregon Christmas menu for 1917 included "Relishes: Ripe olives, Celery, Green onions, Radishes; Soup: Oyster soup; Entrees: Spiced sugar cured ham; Roasts: Roast young Tom turkeys, Cranberry sauce, Giblet gravy, Chestnut dressing; Vegetables: Candied sweet potatoes, Poatato croquettes; Salad: Fruit salad; Des[s]ert: Fruit cake, Hard sauce, Lemon meringue pie, Assorted candies, Assorted nuts, Cluster raisins, Ice cream, Candy canes; Cigars, Cigarettes, Coffee - George H. Upton, Chief Commissary Stweard, United States Navy."

1864 Christmas in the south

2010-12-12T20:47:00.001-05:00

Julia Johnson Fisher, 1814-1885, in Camden County, Georgia:

Jan 6, 1864
On Christmas day we fared sumptuously. Mrs. Lynn dined with us and furnished the turkey. We had some chickens and a piece of fresh pork. Gussie had been off ten miles and brought oysters--so we had an oyster stew and chicken salad, minus the greens, potatoes and rice. The turkey was dressed with corn bread. Our dessert was a corn meal pudding wet with water, enriched with bottled huckleberries and pork fat; sauce made of borrowed syrup and flour--it was excellent, how we did relish it! but we talked of the good pies and bread and cakes that linger in remembrance, and the nuts and apples that pass around so freely in that land of plenty. It is hard to be so entirely deprived of them but we try to console ourselves with the fact that we enjoy better health and appetites. We are always hungry-- hungry the year round, but do not grow fat.
http://docsouth.unc.edu/imls/fisherjulia/fisher.html

Long neck pumpkins

2010-11-30T13:33:00.002-05:00

Last week I cut the long neck pumpkin, which I bought in Lancaster, Pa. In the past, I have used up to 5 sugar pumpkins per week, as seen in a posting from last year: Pumpkin Chips

The seeds are only in the round end, so I was able to get over 18 cups of chip sized pieces from the neck to make Pumpkin Chips and Pumpkin Pickles.

My last photo shows a portion of finished Pumpkin Pickles with long pepper, chunks of nutmeg, whole cloves, mace and cinnamon. One problem I faced with this particular type of pumpkin was the skin peeling from my hand afterwards. It was the hand which held the moist pumpkin slices as I cut them into small pieces. Although annoying, it did not stop me from buying another long neck yesterday.

©2010 Patricia Bixler Reber
hearthcook.com

Hale and making Thanksgiving a national holiday

2010-11-23T09:31:00.002-05:00

Last Thanksgiving I wrote a bit about Lydia Child, this time I'll present the more well known connection - Sarah Josepha Buell Hale (1788-1879). Born in New Hampshire, she moved to Boston to be the editor of Ladies' Magazine from 1827 to 1836. She also wrote books and poems, one was Mary had a Little Lamb. For 40 years, starting in 1837, Hale lived in Philadelphia and was the editor of Godey's Lady's Book. She worked for years to get Thanksgiving recognized and celebrated as a national holiday.

In 1863, Abraham Lincoln proclaimed the last Thursday in November as a national holiday.

Hale described a Thanksgiving dinner in her 1827 book Northwood; a tale of New England:

"...considered an honor for a man to sit down to his Thanksgiving supper surrounded by a large family: The provision is always sufficient for a multitude, every farmer in the country being, at this season of the year, plentifully supplied, and every one proud of displaying his abundance and prosperity.

The roasted turkey took precedence on this occasion, being placed at the head of the table; and well did it become its lordly station, sending forth the rich odour of its savoury stuffing, and finely covered with the frost of the basting. At the foot of the board a surloin of beef, flanked on either side by a leg of pork and joint of mutton, seemed placed as a bastion to defend innumerable bowls of gravy and plates of vegetables disposed in that quarter. A goose and pair of ducklings occupied side stations on the table, the middle being graced, as it always is on such occasions, by that rich burgomaster of the provisions, called a chicken pie. This pie, which is wholly formed of the choicest parts of fowls, enriched and seasoned with a profusion of butter and pepper, and covered with an excellent puff paste, is, like the celebrated pumpkin pie, an indispensable part of a good and true Yankee Thanksgiving; the size of the pie usually denoting the gratitude of the party who prepares the feast. ... Plates of pickles, preserves, and butter, and all the necessaries for increasing the seasoning of the viands to the demand of each palate, filled the interstices on the table, leaving hardly sufficient room for the plates of the company, a wine glass and two tumblers for each, with a slice of wheat bread lying on one of the inverted tumblers.

A side table was literally loaded with the preparations for the second course, placed there to obviate the necessity of leaving the apartment during the repast. Mr. Romelee keeping no domestic, the family were to wait on themselves, or on each other. There was a huge plumb pudding, custards, and pies of every name and description ever known in Yankee land; yet the pumpkin pie occupied the most distinguished niche. There were also several kinds of rich cake, and a variety of sweetmeats and fruits.

On the sideboard was ranged a goodly number of decanters and bottles; the former filled with currant wine and the latter with excellent cider and ginger beer, a beverage Mrs. Romelee prided herself on preparing in perfection. There were no foreign wines or ardent spirits, Squire Romelee being a consistent moralist; and while he deprecated the evils an indulgence in their use was bringing on his countrymen, and urged them to correct the pernicious habit, he practised what he preached. Would that all declaimers against intemperance followed his example.

Two pumpkin recipes from Hale's Ladies' New Book of Cookery (NY: 1852) included one American the other English.

Pumpkin Pie (American).—Take out the seeds, and pare the pumpkin or squash ; but in taking out the seeds do not scrape the inside of the pumpkin ; the part nearest the seed is the sweetest; then stew the pumpkin, and strain it through a sieve or cullender. To a quart of milk, for a family pie, 3 eggs are sufficient. Stir in the stewed pumpkin with your milk and beaten-up eggs, till it is as thick as you can stir round rapidly and easily. If the pie is wanted richer make it thinner, and add sweet cream or another egg or two; but even 1 egg to a quart of milk makes "very decent pies." Sweeten with molasses or sugar; add 2 tea-spoonsful of salt, 2 table-spoonsful of sifted cinnamon, and 1 of powdered ginger; but allspice may be used, or any other spice that may be preferred. The peel of a lemon grated in gives it a pleasant flavor. The more eggs, says an American authority, the better the pie. Some put 1 egg to a gill of milk. Bake about an hour in deep plates, or shallow dishes, without an upper crust, in a hot oven.

Pumpkin Pie (English).—Take out the seeds, and grate the pumpkin till you come to the outside skin. Sweeten the pulp; add a little ground allspice, lemon peel and lemon juice; in short, flavor it to the taste. Bake without an upper crust.

©2010 Patricia Bixler Reber
hearthcook.com

Ten Massachusetts museums do food history

2010-11-19T09:04:00.001-05:00

Table for 10: The Art, History and Science of Food "infuses the Pioneer Valley of Western Massachusetts with a flavorful menu of museum exhibitions, public programs, and special events in Summer/Fall 2010 into 2011. This region-wide promotion organized by Museums10, [http://museums10.org/index.php?op=tablefor10] a partnership of ten outstanding museums and galleries, brings together diverse offerings—from exhibitions and cooking demonstrations to lectures and tastings." Several of the exhibits continue into the next year, two are:

Art has a “Palate”: The Dickinsons and Dining, at the Emily Dickinson Museum until Sept 25, 2011.

Dinner is Served!: Dining and the Decorative Arts in Early America at Historic Deerfield through Feb 27.

Counter Space exhibit in NYC

2010-11-08T17:05:00.000-05:00

Counter Space: Design and the Modern Kitchen, Museum of Modern Art, New York City, through March 14, 2011. The photograph and following information are from their website: moma.org

"Counter Space explores the twentieth-century transformation of the kitchen and highlights MoMA’s recent acquisition of an unusually complete example of the iconic Frankfurt Kitchen, designed in 1926–27 by the architect Grete Schütte-Lihotzky. In the aftermath of World War I, thousands of these kitchens were manufactured for public-housing estates being built around the city of Frankfurt-am-Main in Germany.

Featured alongside the Frankfurt Kitchen is a 1968 mobile fold-out unit manufactured by the Italian company Snaidero. These two complete kitchens are complemented by a wide variety of design objects, architectural plans, posters, archival photographs, and selected artworks, all drawn from MoMA’s collection. Prominence is given to the contribution of women throughout the exhibition, not only as the primary consumers and users of the domestic kitchen, but also as reformers, architects, designers, and as artists who have critically addressed kitchen culture and myths."

Southern Maryland Stuffed Ham

2010-10-25T10:56:00.003-04:00

Yesterday, we went on our yearly outing into St. Mary's county, south east of Washington, DC, to enjoy a Stuffed Ham and Oyster Dinner. During the fall and spring, various churches and organizations run them as fundraisers. At each location, the hams vary in spiciness and what is in the stuffing. One of my favorite dinners is at the Sacred Heart Church in Bushwood, Md.

The first time I tasted the ham, I thought there was something wrong with the meat! It didn't taste at all like the ham and curried fruit my Mom prepared for Easter, rather, it had a spicy and a unique taste, not like country ham or corned beef, something different. In St. Mary's County, a corned ham must be used... with or without the bone (folks have their own decided preference about the bone).

Some years ago, the group at Bushwood allowed me to spend a day helping them prepare the stuffing for the ham, and latter that day, actually stuffing the 50 corned hams. The two ladies in charge, who had made stuffed hams in their homes all their 70+ years, led a cadre of ladies that morning, cleaning and chopping the greens.

Kale, lots of kale, celery, cabbage, and onions. Curiously, although a small county, there are three distinct stuffing recipe regions... one area doesn't even use kale. Then the spices: cayenne pepper, black pepper, whole yellow mustard, whole celery seeds, and salt. The huge tubs of greens were topped completely with the red of the pepper before stirring, since the spices would permeate the meat during cooking, and become weaker.

At 6:00, more volunteers arrived after work, including men to cut through the hams with a long knife and to carry them around the large kitchen. The greens and spices, which had wilted over the afternoon, were stuffed into the incisions and piled on top. The hams were wrapped in cheesecloth and placed in the large refrigerators until the next day when they were boiled. After cooling, the hams were sliced thin and served cold.

For centuries recipes for stuffing hams with a mixture including bread crumbs appeared, as did recipes for "Stuffed Chines" with parsley. Mary Randolph included a recipe "To Stuff a Ham" in her Virginia Housewife.

"TAKE a well smoked ham, wash it very clean, make incisions all over the top two inches deep, stuff them quite full with parsley chopped small and some pepper, boil the ham sufficiently; do not take off the skin. It must be eaten cold."
Mary Randolph. The Virginia Housewife. Baltimore: 1838

Frederick Philip Stieff in his book Eat, Drink & Be Merry in Maryland (1932) gave several recipes for stuffed hams. One recipe began: "This method of cooking hams originated with the early settlers of Maryland. After the fast of Lent it was considered imprudent to eat too greatly of fat meats and this method came into usage and it is yet used by many families at Eastertide." Another recipe:

Stuffed Ham
Hams of twelve pounds or more are best to use for "stuffed ham," a popular dish with Southern Marylanders, particularly at Easter. The ham to be used is best when less than a year old.
For a sixteen-pound ham use one peck of greens: cabbage sprouts, turnip greens or kale, two dozen bunches of spring onions or their equivalent in chives, red and black pepper and celery seed.
Allow fifteen minutes per pound after the ham starts boiling and cook steadily until three-fourths done. Then put aside partly cool while the greens scald in the ham liquor. When well wilted, take greens up and chop well. Season greens with celery seed and pepper to taste.
Then with a sharp knife cut crescent-shaped openings in the ham, top and bottom, as deep as the knife will go. Stuff the mixture of greens in the incisions, as much as they will hold. Make as many incisions as the ham will conveniently take.
Fold in a stout cloth and sew fast. Replace ham in the boiling liquor for the remaining quarter of the time allowed for cooking. Cool in the liquor, and when thoroughly cold, it is ready for use. Keep cloth on the ham to preserve the moisture and keep in a cool place. It is truly a dish for the gods. - Mr. I.F. Coad, M.M., Cherryfields Manor, St. Mary's County

©2010 Patricia Bixler Reber
hearthcook.com

Arcimboldo paintings in DC

2010-10-10T10:26:00.000-04:00

Arcimboldo, 1526–1593: Nature and Fantasy exhibit,
September 19 – January 9, 2011 at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC.

"Sixteen examples of the fantastic composite heads painted by Giuseppe Arcimboldo will be featured in this exhibition, their first appearance in the United States. Bizarre yet scientifically accurate, the unusual heads are composed of plants, animals, and objects."

This exhibit is terrific, and there is even an av presentation in an adjoining room. But for those unable to visit the exhibit, the paintings and detailed information may be viewed at: Exhibition brochure or click: Exhibit webpage and select the link 'Exhibition Brochure' along the right side of the museum web page. It is very informative.

Beets

2010-09-26T21:10:00.002-04:00

There are numerous ways to prepare beets. In addition to Pickled, Salad, or Harvard Beets, beets are delicious fried or used in baking. Some past recipes include Beet Pie (1860), Lombardy Tarts (1588), Crimson Biscuits (1727), To Fry Beets (1723), Pink Pancakes (1788) Beet Fritters (1889), Beet Vinegar (1854) and a Stuffed Beet with rice and pecans (1919). Recipes for these dishes can be found at the end of this article.

The proper way of preparing beets, according to many old recipes, was to clean carefully so as not to "...break the skin on them, and on no account cut off any of the fine roots; for so surely as you do, so surely will your beets be tasteless and colorless. Put them over to boil in a kettle of cold water. When partly done, throw in some salt. When tender, take them out into a dish of cold water, which cools them so you can handle them..." [Arthur's Home Magazine. Timothy Shay Arthur. Phila: 1869] To check when done, "...lift one from the water with a skimmer, press it with the fingers, protected by a dry towel; it will yield slightly to pressure when it is done." [Family Living on $500 a Year by Juliet Corson, 1888]. Remove the skin with your fingers, not a sharp knife.

Other authors preferred baking beets rather than boiling. "Beets retain their sugary delicate flavor much better by baking instead of boiling; turn often in the pan while in the oven, using a knife, as a fork will cause the juice to flow; when done, remove skin, slice and season with butter, pepper and salt, or if for pickle, slice into good cold vinegar." [Buckeye Cookery and Practical Housekeeping. Ohio: 1877] A third suggestion is to roast the beets in hot ashes.

Beets can be stored in a cold cellar, or "...buried in moist earth in a corner of the cellar, from which they are to be taken as wanted." [Good Housekeeping. Springfield, Mass: 1887] Or according to Leslie: "TO KEEP CARROTS, PARSNIPS, BEETS, AND SWEET POTATOES. These should all be housed before the first frost. Range them side by side, and bury them in dry sand ; a bed of sand at the bottom; another between each layer of the vegetables, and a thick sand covering for the whole. When wanted for use, begin at one end, and draw them out in regular order, and not out of the middle till you come to it." [Leslie, Eliza. Miss Leslie's Lady's New Receipt-book. Phila: 1850]

Fried beet recipes in the 18th and 19th century called for frying the cooked beet slices in butter after being ‘dredged’ in flour; or diced and fried. Pink Pancakes involved smashed cooked beets added to a batter, then fried.

Link to Early Beet Recipes at Hearthcook.com website.

To make a pink-coloured Pancake.
BOIL a large beet root tender, and beat it fine in a marble mortar, then add the yolks of four eggs, two spoonfuls of flour, and three spoonfuls of good cream, sweeten it to your taste, and grate in half a nutmeg, and put in a glass of brandy; beat them all together half an hour, fry them in butter, and garnish them with green sweetmeats, preserved apricots, or green sprigs of myrtle.—It is a pretty corner dim for either dinner or supper
The Experienced English Housekeeper. Elizabeth Raffald 1786

Eggs the Burgundian Way
Pound a Piece of red Beet with some beaten Cinnamon, Sugar, Macaroons, and a Slice of Lemon then take half a dozen Eggs, without the Tread, a little Salt and Milk mix all well together, and strain them through a Sieve; put it into a Dish, let it over a Fire, and brown it with a red hot Fire-shovel.
The Lady's Companion 1743

Beet-Root. [Pickled]
SET a pot of spring water on the fire, when it boils put in your beets, and let them boil till they are tender ; take them out, and with a knife take off all the outside ; cut them in pieces according to your fancy, put them in a jar, cover them with cold vinegar, and them down close; when you use the beet, take it out of the pickle, and cut it into what shapes you like; put it in a little dish, with some of the pickle over it. You may use it for sallads or garnish.
The English Art of Cookery. Richard Briggs 1788

Other 18th century authors suggested adding spices such as “some mace, nutmeg, and very little pepper” [The Lady's, Housewife's, and Cookmaid's Assistant. E. Taylor. 1769] or “[p]our over them a hot pickle of white wine vinegar, a little pepper, ginger, and sliced horse-radish.[The Accomplished Housekeeper, and Universal Cook. T. Williams. 1717]

To fry Beets.
Bake them in an Oven, peel them, and cut them in Slices long ways, and about half an Inch thick; then steep them in a thin Batter, made of White-wine, fine Flour, Cream, and the Whites and Yolks of Eggs, (but more Yolks than Whites,) season'd with Salt, Pepper, and beaten Cloves; let them lye in the Batter a little while, then take them out, and drudge them with Flour, crumbled Bread, and Parsley shred small; then fry them, and when they are dry, serve them in Plates with Juice of Lemon. You may also make a Fricassie of them with Butter, Parsley, Salt, Pepper, and Onions.
Nott, John. The Cooks and Confectioners Dictionary. London: 1723

Stuffed Beets
Wash 1/2 cup of rice and sprinkle it into a kettle of boiling water, let boil 15 minutes and drain. Chop a cup of pecan nuts and mix with the rice, add 1 teaspoon of salt, and a little pepper. Scoop the centers from cooked beets, fill the space with rice mixture, stand in a baking-pan and bake 20 minutes. Chop the centers of the beet, add to a cream sauce and serve around the beets.
Furgerson, A.N. From House to House. NY: 1916

Works cited
Arthur, Timothy Shay. Arthur's Home Magazine. Phila: 1869
Briggs, Richard. The English Art of Cookery. 1788
Buckeye Cookery and Practical Housekeeping. Ohio: 1877
Corson, Juliet. Family Living on $500 a Year. NY: 1888
Furgerson, A.N. From House to House. NY: 1916
Good Housekeeping. Springfield, Mass: 1887
The Lady's Companion 1743
Leslie, Eliza. Miss Leslie's Lady's New Receipt-book. Phila: 1850
Nott, John. The Cooks and Confectioners Dictionary. London: 1723
Raffald, Elizabeth. The Experienced English Housekeeper. 1786
Taylor, E. The Lady's, Housewife's, and Cookmaid's Assistant. 1769
Williams, T. The Accomplished Housekeeper, and Universal Cook. 1717

©2010 Patricia Bixler Reber
hearthcook.com

Food for Tomorrow symposium at Smithsonian, DC

2010-09-26T09:11:00.000-04:00

Nov 5-6 Food for Tomorrow at the National Museum of American History in Washington, DC. For more info click: Smithsonian webpage

"How do invention and innovation shape the ways we grow, prepare, and enjoy food? Discover the history and future of food and related technologies, from sustainable agriculture to molecular gastronomy. Along the way, eat, drink, and learn! The weekend features a film preview, a “three-course” symposium program, treasure hunts for food-related objects on exhibit in the museum, wine tasting, and food-science family activities at the Spark!Lab. Compete in the “Kitchen Gadget Showdown” and taste-test gourmet sea salts!"

Friday evening is a showing of clips from Truck Farm! on urban farms, followed by "garden-fresh libations and local bites."

Saturday is a mixture of talks: "Future of Food" by Warren Belasco, "Producing Food for Tomorrow," 'Preparing Food for Tomorrow," and "Eating Meals Tomorrow," and activities: Wine tasting that night, and many other activities in the Museum during the day.

Drink in Early Maryland exhibit

2010-09-17T09:24:00.001-04:00

Cheers! The Culture of Drink in Early Maryland

Baltimore's Homewood Museum is having an exibition until November 28. "Presenting over 50 objects drawn from local private and public collections and the museum’s own holdings, this special exhibition explores the visual and material culture of wine, spirits, beer, and “cyder” in early Maryland’s finest homes, with an emphasis on Baltimore and Homewood’s Carroll family. Superb examples of wine bottles, decanters, coasters, glassware, corkscrews, bottle tickets, sideboards, cellarettes, wine coolers, and other related equipage, all created between 1790 and 1840, illustrate the vast array of specialized and elegant tools used to heighten the delight of imbibing. Complemented by vignettes staged in the dining room and parlor, Cheers! offers a glimpse into the opulent drinking culture of early 19th-century Maryland’s elite, from procurement and storage to presentation and consumption."

In conjunction, there will be three Friday evening tastings of Madeira (Se 24), Wine (Oct 1) and Historic Home Brews- hard apple and pear ciders, fruit wines, and craft beer (Oct 11). For more information: Museum webpage

Heirloom Apples roundtable - Sept 17

2010-09-04T21:18:00.001-04:00

For the Year of the Heirloom Apple, The National Agricultural Library is hosting a free event - Celebrating America's Unique Apple Diversity: A Roundtable Discussion Featuring Some of America's Leading Apple Experts.

On Friday, Sept. 17 from 1:30-3:30, five apple growers (Nick Botner, OR, Tom Burford, VA, John Bunker, ME, Dan Bussey, WI, and Lee Calhoun, NC) will discuss "...their perspectives on America's fading apple diversity and what steps we can take to preserve it."

The National Agricultural Library, which has many works of interest to culinary historians, is located just off the DC Beltway at 10301 Baltimore Ave., Beltsville, MD 20705. RSVP to NAL-Events@ars.usda.gov [subject line: Apple Roundtable].

Free museums, LC Book Festival - Sept 25

2010-08-21T14:34:00.000-04:00

There will be two terrific free events on Saturday, Sept 25.

Throughout the country, over 1,000 museums participating in the 6th Smithsonian Museum Day will be free to visitors. To find museums and to print out the admission pass go to the website: http://microsite.smithsonianmag.com/museumday

On the Mall, in front of the Smithsonian in DC, many authors will give talks and sign books as part of the Library of Congress' 10th Book Festival. To see the authors and times go to: National Book Festival 2010.

Women's Suffrage - 90th anniversary

2010-08-14T13:52:00.001-04:00

This year is the 90th anniversary of the 19th Amendment, ratified on August 18, 1920,which declared "The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex." Wyoming was the first to formally allow women to vote in 1869, as a territory, and then as a state had the first woman governor. Esther Hobart Morris, an early promoter for women's voting rights, was appointed the first female Justice of the Peace in the US in 1870. One statue of Morris is on the front lawn of the State Capitol building and a second is on of Wyoming's two state statues in the US Capitol's Statuary Hall. Illinois Constitutional Law stated that "neither idiots, lunatics, paupers, felons nor women shall be entitled to vote."

Several Suffragist cookbooks are online.

Burr, Mrs. Hattie A. The Woman Suffrage Cook Book. Boston: c1886
Jennings, Linda Deziah. Washington Women's Cook Book. Seattle: 1909.

And from the Suffrage Cookbook by L.O. Kleber. Pittsburgh, 1915:

Pie for a Suffragist's Doubting Husband

1 qt. milk human kindness
8 reasons:
War
White Slavery
Child Labor
8,000,000 Working Women
Bad Roads
Poisonous Water
Impure Food

Mix the crust with tact and velvet gloves, using no sarcasm, especially with the upper crust. Upper crusts must be handled with extreme care for they quickly sour if manipulated roughly.

©2010 Patricia Bixler Reber
hearthcook.com

Imperial silver service exhibit in NYC

2010-08-01T21:38:00.001-04:00

Apr 13 - Nov 7.
Vienna Circa 1780: An Imperial Silver Service Rediscovered. Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City.

There are over 300 items (wine coolers, tureens, cloches, candelabra, candlesticks, dozens of plates, porcelain-mounted cutlery, and other kinds of tableware) from the set made for Duke Albert Casimir of Sachsen–Teschen (1738–1822) and his consort, Archduchess Marie Christine of Austria (1742–1798), daughter of Empress Maria Theresa, by the Imperial court goldsmith Ignaz Josef Würth.

from the webpage: Vienna Circa 1780: An Imperial Silver Service Rediscovered

Monticello symposium Sept 10-11

2010-07-21T09:31:00.001-04:00

Historic Plants Symposium
"The 7th biennial symposium, Come to Table—Historic Plants in the Kitchen, will focus on the garden’s harvest in early American recipes from a regional perspective. Speakers include New England food historian Sandy Oliver, heirloom vegetable collector and author William Woys Weaver, and John Martin “Hoppin’ John” Taylor, author and expert on Charleston foodways and Lowcountry cuisine, along with Monticello’s Leni Sorensen on African-American cooking and Peter Hatch with a look at Thomas Jefferson’s vegetable garden and kitchen."
for more information about the other weekend activities: http://www.monticello.org/calendar/index.html?select_month=9#100

The Blues - Blueberries, Huckleberries, Whortleberries

2010-07-10T11:11:00.002-04:00

Although botanically different, the three berries were often used interchangeably by cooks, as seen in the following recipes. The White House Cookbook of 1887 used huckleberries in the title, then blueberries in the ingredients. For the recipe "Elkridge Huckleberry Pudding," Elizabeth Ellicott Lea from Maryland used the term whortleberry in the first edition, 1845, but huckleberry in the 1846 and 1851 editions. When I make her delicious pudding [actually a sponge cake] recipe, below, I use frozen wild smaller blueberries.
For more recipes go to my website page at: Recipe of the Month - Blueberries, Huckleberries, Whortleberries

WHORTLEBERRY PUDDING.
Whortleberries are good both in flour and Indian puddings. A pint of milk, with a little salt and a little molasses, stirred quite stiff with Indian meal, and a quart of berries stirred in gradually with a spoon, makes a good-sized pudding. Leave room for it to swell; and let it boil three hours.When you put them into flour, make your pudding just like batter-puddings; but considerably thicker, or the berries will sink. Two hours is plenty long enough to boil. No pudding should be put in till the water boils. Leave room to swell.
Child, Lydia Maria. The Frugal Housewife. Boston: 1830

BATTER PUDDING
Take six ounces of fine flour, a little salt, and three eggs; beat up well with a little milk, added by degrees till the batter is quite smooth; make it the thickness of cream; put into a buttered pie-dish, and bake three quarters of an hour; or in a buttered and floured basin, tied over tight with a cloth: boil one hour and a half, or two hours.
Any kind of ripe fruit that you like may be added to the batter,--only you must make the batter a little stiffer. Blueberries or finely chopped apple are most usually liked.
Hale, Sarah. The Good Housekeeper. Boston: 1839.

ELKRIDGE HUCKLEBERRY PUDDING
One pound of flour, one of light-brown sugar, eight eggs—beat as sponge cake, and add one quart of berries, nicely picked, washed, and allowed to dry; bake as sponge cake. This may be served with sauce, either hot or cold.
Lea, Elizabeth Ellicott. Domestic Cookery. Baltimore: 1846
BLUEBERRIES. [Canning](No. 1.)
The worst part of the work is the picking over, which requires a great deal of patience. After picking wash well and fill in glass jars. I do not mean to just fill, you must jam them in as tight as possible, using a potato beetle or some other wooden tool to squeeze in the berries, no matter if they are bruised. Fill to the brim, clap on the rubbers, then screw on the lid. When you have all the jars filled, set in a wash boiler, which has been lined with hay and pack between the jars also. Fill jars almost to the neck with cold water,then set on to boil, and boil about fifteen minutes from the time it begins to boil. Lift the boiler from the fire and let the jars remain in the boiler until cold. Now examine each jar closely, screw tighter and examine every other day for a week, always screwing tighter. Add sugar when you intend to use them. They are equal to fresh berries, especially for compote.
"Aunt Babette's" Cook Book. Cincinnati: 1889

HUCKLEBERRY COMPOTE
Pick over a quart of huckleberries or blueberries, wash them and set to boil. Do not add any water to them. Sweeten with half a cup of sugar, and spice with half a teaspoon of cinnamon. Just before removing from the fire, add a teaspoon of cornstarch which has been wet with a little cold water. Do this thoroughly in a cup and stir with a teaspoon so as not to have any lumps in it. Pour into a glass bowl. Eat cold.
Greenbaum, Florence Kreisler. The International Jewish Cook Book... New York: 1919

HUCKLEBERRIES WITH CRACKERS AND CREAM.
Pick over carefully one quart of blueberries, and keep them on ice until wanted. Put into each bowl, for each guest, two soda-crackers, broken in not too small pieces; add a few tablespoonfuls of berries, a teaspoonful of powdered sugar, and fill the bowl with the richest of cold, sweet cream. This is an old-fashioned New England breakfast dish. It also answers for a dessert.
Gillette, Fanny Lemira. The White House Cookbook. Chicago: 1887

©2010 Patricia Bixler Reber
hearthcook.com

Cinnamon harvesting in Ceylon 1813

2010-06-28T22:22:00.001-04:00

Oriental Commerce by William Milburn... of the East India Company. London: 1813

"The cinnamon tree, or Laurus Cinnamonum, is a species of laurel. The cinnamon of Ceylon, however, is greatly improved by cultivation; and that which is most highly prized, is stripped from shoots of young trees.

Cinnamon is barked in the woods at two different seasons of the year: the first is termed the grand harvest, and lasts from April to August; the second is the small harvest, and lasts from November to January.

The barking is performed in the following manner: A good cinnamon-tree is looked out for, and chosen by the leaves, and other characteristics. Those branches which are three years old, are lopped off with a common crooked pruning knife, from which the outside pellicle of the bark is scraped off; the twigs are then ripped up long ways with the point of a knife, and the bark gradually loosened till it can be entirely taken off. The smaller tubes or quills of it are inserted into the larger, and thus spread out to dry, when the bark rolls itself up still closer together, and is then tied into bundles, and finally carried off:

each bundle is then bound round with rattans, and packed up, after having previously undergone an examination by tasting and chewing, which is a very troublesome and disagreeable office: it is but seldom a person is able to hold out two or three days successively, as the cinnamon deprives the tongue and lips of all the mucus with which they are covered.

Each bundle is then made nearly the length of four feet, and is weighed off to 88 lbs. subsequently to its being well secured. It is sewed in double gunnies, and when stowed in the ship's hold, loose black pepper is sprinkled over the bales, to fill up every hole and interstice, by which means the cinnamon is preserved in its original goodness.

The first and best sort of cinnamon, which is peculiar to the island, is called by the natives rasse coronde, or sharp sweet cinnamon. It is this choice sort which is exported yearly by the East India Company, by whom it has been prohibited under severe penalties, that any other sort should be mixed with it."

Images from : A Curious Herbal by Elizabeth Blackwell, 1837. Around the world with eyes wide open... by H. Allen Tupper. NY: 1898

Library of Congress on TV

2010-06-07T14:05:00.000-04:00

Modern Marvels on the History Channel this Thursday, June 10 at 9PM will showcase the Library of Congress in "The Real National Treasure." Although not about food, for those of us who use LC (I was just there on Saturday) or its online collections, this should be a fascinating and informative show. My article on researching at LoC, Library of Congress and for more info on the show: http://www.loc.gov/today/pr/2010/10-132.html

Kitchen in the Royal Pavillion at Brighton

2010-06-01T18:35:00.001-04:00

I have been working on an article about Steam Kitchens [for a previous picture: Steam Kitchen] and came across a terrific panoramic view of the kitchen in the Royal Pavillion at Brighton at the link below. In 1816, John Nash updated the kitchen with state of the art steam features, while still containing a roasting hearth with long spits. To slow the 360 view, place cursor arrow over a picture. http://www.royalpavilion.org.uk/palace/panflash2.asp

Although containing only a few historical kitchens, this interesting site shows panoramic views of kitchens from around the world. http://www.kitchen-pano.com/

Salmagundy

2010-05-25T11:11:00.001-04:00

Salmagundy is a layered salad with colorful greens, meat, anchovies, and eggs among the variety of ingredients, with a vinegar based dressing. The name has many variants such as salmagundi, salmagondi, salamongundy, sallad-magundy, Solomon Gundy, salmi-, salmogundy, salmagunda, and salmagundy.

SALMAGUNDY
"...is a beautiful small dish, if in nice shape, and if the colours of the ingredients are varied. For this purpose chop separately the white part of cold chicken or veal, yolks of eggs boiled hard, the whites of eggs; parsley, half a dozen anchovies, beet-root, red pickled cabbage, ham, and grated tongue, or any thing well-flavoured, and of a good colour. Some people like a small proportion of onion, but it may be better omitted. A saucer, large tea-cup, or any other base, must be put into a small dish; then make rows round it wide at bottom, and growing smaller towards the top; choosing such of the ingredients for each row as will most vary the colours. At the top a little sprig of curled parsley may be stuck in; or, without any thing on the dish, the salmagundy may be laid in rows, or put into the half-whites of eggs, which may be made to stand upright by cutting off a little bit at the round end. In the latter case, each half egg has but one ingredient. Curled butter and parsley may be put as garnish between." Rundell

Making the Recipe:"Take two or three Roman or Cabbage Lettice, and when you have washed them clean, swing them pretty dry in a Cloth; then beginning at the open End, cut them cross-ways, as fine as a good big Thread, and lay the Lettices so cut, about an Inch thick all over the Bottom of the Dish." Glasse 1747

Layer the lettuce by alternating colars. Ingredients for the layers may also include: "lettuce, pepper grass, chervil, cress… young scallions" [Randolph], "Roman or Cabbage Lettice [head]… Lemon into small Dice…. Garnish with Grapes just scalded, or French beans blanched, or Station [Nasturtium] Flowers " [Glasse]. sorrel, spinach, endive, chicory, celery, fennel [Evelyn].

Cut the white meat of a cooked chicken [see Chicken on a string] "...into Slices, about three Inches long, a Quarter of an Inch broad, and as thin as a Shilling; lay them upon the Lettice." [Glasse] Add Anchovies … "between each Slice of the Fowls…the dark of the Legs into Dice." Cut the whites of hard boiled eggs in rings, cut up the yolks of 2 eggs.

SALMAGUNDI DRESSING"…boil two fresh eggs ten minutes, put them in water to cool, then take the yelks in a soup plate, pour on them a table spoonful of cold water, rub them with a wooden spoon until they are perfectly dissolved; then add two spoonsful of oil: when well mixed, put in a teaspoonful of salt, one of powdered sugar, and one of made mustard; when all these are united and quite smooth, stir in two table spoonsful of common, and two of tarragon vinegar; put it over the salad." Randolph

Making the Recipe:
3 egg yolks, cooked
2T water
3T oil
1t salt
2t sugar
1t prepared mustard
1T vinegar
3T tarragon vinegar

Combine salt, mustard and sugar. Set aside. Mash the yolks in a bowl and blend with water. Add oil, then the mustard mixture. When smooth, slowly stir in the vinegars. Try with less vinegar and a little more sugar.

©2010 Patricia Bixler Reber
hearthcook.com

Chocolate House at Colonial Williamsburg

2010-05-13T15:10:00.001-04:00

hearthcook.com

Historic Plants in the Kitchen Symposium - Monticello

2010-05-03T09:43:00.001-04:00

Sept 10 & 11 Historic Plants Biennial Symposium & annual Heritage Harvest Festival at Monticello, Charlottesville VA

Food historians will be speaking at this year's Historic Plants Symposium at Thomas Jefferson's Monticello's Tufton Farm. Reservations are required, but the next day's activities are free to the public.

Sandy Oliver
William Woys Weaver
John Martin “Hoppin’ John” Taylor
Leni Sorensen
Peter Hatch

For more information: http://www.monticello.org/calendar/saturdays.html

Planked Fish

2010-04-26T20:53:00.001-04:00

"Roasting and Barbacueing" in Robert Beverly's History and Present State of Virginia... 1705

There were several methods, in addition to roasting on a plank or encasing in clay, to prepare fish by a fire. The Lewis and Clarke expedition of 1804-6 found that the Clatsops of the Pacific Northwest used a spike. "Meat is roasted on one end of a sharp skewer, placed erect before the fire, with the other fixed in the ground. The spit for fish is split at the top into two parts, between which the fish is placed, cut open, and its sides extended by means of small splinters." [History]

The image "Plantation Cooks, Surinam, 1839" shows fish being suspended above the cooking pot and fire.

In the 1769 book "The Lady's, Housewife's, and Cookmaid's Assistant by E. Taylor, a Fish Spit was used for Haddocks, a lark spit for Carp, and "To roast a Pike. Scale and gut it through the gills... When you have put this force-meat into the belly, spit it, tie it on with two splinters, and a piece of tape, dredge and baste it."

Laths of Willow were used to roast Jack or Pike by Richard Bradley in 1732. Clean and stuff the fish, "...cut two small Laths of Willow, or any other Wood, except Deal, or such as has a Turpentine Juice in it, of the length of the Fish, and lay the Fish upon the Spit, with the two Laths upon the Fish, and bind them together with a Fillet of Linnen, about an Inch wide, which must be wrapp'd round them in a Screw-like manner, and then laid down to the Fire..."

Planked Fish

Wood to be used as a plank included "a suitable board, (not Pine;)" [Webster], "clean oak board about three inches thick" [Peterson]. "oaken board or barrel top" [Mason].

To Roast A Shad
"Fill the cavity with good forcemeat, sew it up and tie it on a board of proper size, cover it with bread crumbs, with some salt and pepper, set it before the fire to roast it; when done on one side, turn it, tie it again, and when sufficiently done, pull out the thread and serve it up with butter and parsley poured over it." [Randolph]

American Shad timeline along the Delaware River
Valley Forge and Shad
Hudson River Shad

Complete recipes at: Planked fish
Plantation cooks image from The Atlantic Slave Trade and Slave Life in the Americas: A Visual Record

Works cited
Bradley, Richard. The Country Housewife and Lady's Director. 1732
History of the expedition under the command of Captains Lewis and Clarke. NY: 1861
Mason, Mary. The Young Housewife's Counsellor. Phila: 1871
Peterson, Hannah. The National Cook Book. Phila: 1866
Randolph, Mary. The Virginia Housewife. 1824
Taylor, E. The Lady's, Housewife's, and Cookmaid's Assistant. Berwick Upon Tweed: 1769
Webster, A.L. The Improved Housewife. 1855

©2010 Patricia Bixler Reber
hearthcook.com

Food and Shakespeare Monday April 26

2010-04-22T12:26:00.001-04:00

Apr 26 Epicurean references in Shakespeare. 8pm Folger Shakespeare Library. DC

Jonathan Bate, professor of English at Warwick, will speak on "The Good Life in Shakespeare" and about the Epicurean tradition, with an emphasis on the plays As You Like It, The Winter's Tale, and Measure for Measure. He is the author of The Genius of Shakespeare and a Governor and Board member of the Royal Shakespeare Company.

Asparagus Loaves or Sparrow Grass Rolls

2010-04-19T17:23:00.001-04:00

The term Sparrow Grass, referring to Asparagus, was used in Britain in the 18th and 19th centuries. An 1816 work presented various Northern dialects words, such as the German spargel, and the author stated that "an intelligent English lexicographer says—' I rather think sparrowgrass to be the proper English name of the plant, than a corruption of the Latin asparagus; and in this I am supported by Miller in his Gardener's Dictionary.' "
A vocabulary; or, Collection of words and phrases... by John Pickering. Boston: 1816

Sparrow-Grass. A vulgar pronunciation of asparagus both in England and America, sometimes in the New York market contracted to "grass."
Dictionary of Americanisms by John Bartlett. 1877

ASPARAGUS LOAVES.
Having scraped the stalks of three bundles of fine, large asparagus, (laying it, as you proceed, in a pan of cold water,) tie it up again in bunches, put them into a pot with a great deal of boiling water, and a little salt, and boil them about twenty minutes, or till quite tender. Then take out the asparagus, and drain it. Cut off the green tops of two-thirds of the asparagus, and on the remainder leave about two inches of the white stalk; this remaining asparagus must be kept warm. Put the tops into a stew-pan with a pint of cream, or rich milk, sufficient to cover them well; adding three table-spoonfuls of fresh butter, rolled in flour, half a grated nutmeg, and the well-beaten yolks of three eggs. Set the stew-pan over hot coals, and stir the mixture till it comes to a boil. Then immediately remove it. Have ready some tall fresh rolls or penny loaves; cut the tops carefully off, in a nice circular or oval piece, and then scoop out the inside of the rolls, and fill them with the stewed asparagus while it is hot. Make small holes very nicely in the tops or lids. Fit the lids again on the rolls, and stick in the holes (of which you must make as many as you can) the remaining asparagus, that has had the bit of stalk left on for this purpose. Send them to table warm, as side-dishes.
Leslie, Eliza. The Lady's Receipt-Book; a Useful Companion for Large or Small Families... Philadelphia: 1847
NOTE: I have often made this dish, and it is delicious each time.

Asparagus forced in French Rolls.
Take three French rolls, take out all the crumb, by first cutting a piece of the top-crust off; but be careful that the crust fits again in the same place; fry the rolls brown in fresh butter; then take a pound of cream, the yolks of six eggs beat fine, a little salt and nutmeg, stir them well together over a slow fire till it begins to be thick; have a hundred of small grass boiled; then save tops enough to stick the rolls with, the rest cut small and put into the cream, fill the loaves with them: before you fry the rolls make holes thick in the top crust and stick the grass in; then lay on the piece of crust and stick the grass in, that it may look as if it were growing. It makes a pretty side-dish for a second course.
Hannah Glasse. The Art of Cookery 1796

Historic House Kitchens Symposium - Mass.

2010-04-05T08:52:00.001-04:00

Historic New England hosted many programs throughout New England as part of their Year of the Kitchen Program, 2009. The Kitchens symposium has been rescheduled for May 15, 2010 at Spencer-Peirce-Little Farm in Newbury, Mass.

http://www.historicnewengland.org/things/calendar/Events.asp?State=MA

Summer Kitchen

2010-03-29T14:01:00.002-04:00

When was the term "summer kitchen" first used? The separated kitchen building we refer to as the summer kitchen has been built for centuries and in many cases still remain. References can also be found in probate inventories, letters, diaries, etc. to a kitchen building off from the house, but simply called kitchen. Other terms were out kitchen and back kitchen.

In his 1846 book The Life of a Negro Slave, Charles Ball recalled his arrival at a southern plantation. "Thus we passed the first day; sleeping at night in a shed or summer kitchen near the house..." An earlier mention was in an English/Dutch dictionary of 1832 for both summer-kitchen and winter-kitchen.

By the second half of the 19th century, there were hundreds of references to a "summer kitchen." However, it was not always the image of a southern home with the kitchen completely separate from the house.

"The room b is intended for a dining-room in summer, and the room h for a summer kitchen; in winter, the room b to be used for both purposes." The Farmer's and Emigrant's Handbook. Josiah Marshall, NY: 1845

A second northern example is from Homes for the People... by Geevase Wheeler NY: 1855. The home was built on Long Island Sound.

"In the rear of the dining-room [10] is a private hall, No. 11, in which are a flight of stairs to the floor below, a servants' stairway to the chambers, a large china-closet, and a dumb-waiter for transmission of dishes from below. The smallness of the scale renders these portions somewhat minute, but they are all of ample size and convenient arrangement.

From this hall an entry leads to a summer-kitchen, No. 12, which is fifteen by nineteen, and so placed as, though sufficiently removed from the main building to prevent heat or odor penetrating the interior, is conveniently near for use.

The space below is occupied by a large kitchen under the dining-room provided with a range and boiler, an old-fashioned brick oven, and a large open fire-place for roasting. There is also a laundry beneath the family parlor, and, in the rear of that, a bathingroom for the use of the servants. Spacious provision is made for the furnace, which is below the vestibule, No. 7, and the rest of the space is filled with store-rooms, cellars, milk-room, larder, &c.; all carefully arranged and of liberal size. Below the summer kitchen is the coal-cellar; and, under the entry that leads to it, space is left for a retired inclosure containing a water-closet for the servants."

"The Summer-kitchen, intended to relieve the larger room of the heavier work, is furnished with a Range, Boiler, Sink, Pump, and Wash-tubs, and has an outside door. The Bath-room is situated at the side of the summerkitchen, and contains a Bathtub and a Seat-closet. A Tank, 3x3x6 feet, is placed between the ceiling and roof of this wing, and arranged to receive rain-water from the main roof. A Forcepump is set near the iron sink, and arranged to supply water from the cistern to the tank, when the rain-supply is exhausted. "

American Agriculturist. vol. 35 NY: 1876

hearthcook.com

Paul Revere and Beyond... 18th-Century New England Silver

2010-03-22T13:36:00.000-04:00

Paul Revere and Beyond: Understanding 18th-Century New England Silver symposium was held on April 24 from 8:45 - 4:00 at Historic Deerfield, Mass. information and registration form

Steam Kitchen

2010-03-16T17:22:00.001-04:00

A picture of Slater's Patent Steam Kitchen, 1812

Madeira

2010-03-14T15:14:00.001-04:00

Oceans of Wine: Madeira and the Emergence of American Trade and Taste by David Hancock. New Haven: Yale, 2009

This engaging and thoroughly researched (150 pages of endnotes) work delves into all aspects of Madeira from the growing of the grapes on the Portuguese island of Madeira to the merchants, shippers, and consumers. The often complex and changing transatlantic trade was not restricted to the British colonies, but among many nations.

Colonial Americans were large importers of Madeira before the Revolution, and to a lesser degree after. Madeira was so popular in the colonies in part because, unlike continental European wines, the wine actually benefited from the warmth and movement of the ships. It could even be stored in the attic.

Madeira during the colonial and early Federal period: “South Carolinians and Virginians preferred extremely pale, dry wine as ‘white as water’ that had been heavily fortified [with brandy]; Philadelphians requested golden wines with slightly less brandy and slightly more sweetness; and New Yorkers wanted an amber, somewhat reddish drink that was even less brandied and more sugared.” Later, Madeira was allowed to age for longer periods and the Americans turned to lighter Madeiras closer to the increasingly favored continental wines.

Covering 1640 to 1815, the book has fascinating chapters on cellars, wine use at home and taverns, glass & bottle shapes, and even the backcountry trade.

For a current Madeira with a historic flavor see www.rarewineco.com/html/rwc-hist.htm

©2010 Patricia Bixler Reber
hearthcook.com

Food and Dining in the Hudson Valley, Hyde Park, NY

2010-03-08T15:16:00.001-05:00

Bon Appetit: Food and Dining in the Hudson Valley, a conference to be held in Hyde Park, NY on March 20. http://www.fdrlibrary.marist.edu/publicprograms/pdfs/estates.pdf

Potting Pots - Potted Meat, To pot a Swan

2010-03-01T10:31:00.002-05:00

One way of preserving foods, but also for “present use” [Hale] was by potting. Many cookery books from the 18th (almost twenty) into the 20th century contained a variety of recipes - Robert Smith [1723] had eleven, and Beeton [1863] had many more. Underwood Deviled Ham and Armour Potted Meat are available in supermarkets, but with far less demand than in the past. [photo from Steppes Hill Farm Antiques website]

Various foods were potted including meats (ham, beef, veal, tongue, game), poultry (chicken, turkey, swan), small birds (woodcock, quail, lark, pigeon), fish (char, tench, trout, eel) shellfish (lobster, crab, shrimp), mushrooms and cheese(also called Pounded Cheese). Interesting versions were "To pot Beef to eat like Venison," a receipt for a goose within a turkey, and “To pot Boned Pigeons whole.”

Generally, the meat or fish was cooked, boned, cut against the grain, then pounded in a mortar with salt, pepper, and spices, such as mace, nutmeg and cloves. In 1817 Kitchiner wrote "...to make Potted Meats smooth there is nothing equal to plenty of Elbow-grease." It should be the consistancy of paste or "like dough" [E. Smith] Once cooled, the mixture was firmly pressed into a potting pot and sealed from the air with a layer of clarified butter. The pot was covered with paper, sheet India rubber, or a bladder tied securely in place and stored in a cool dry location for months. Earlier recipes for pounded meats (or pieces) put the mixture in hard pastry shells to be served. By mid 1600’s some pots were mentioned. Price’s The Complete Cook, 1681 suggested the paste cover an earthenware pot.

With the advent of pots, the potted food could be sent “... to table either cut in slices or in the pot.” [Farley] “If you want to turn it whole out of your pots, butter them well before you put in the meat.” [Briggs] An attractive slice was “Potted lobster or Crab” by Kitchiner made by layering lobster pieces, coral and spawn. Glasse wrote that "...a slice of this ['potted Cheshire Cheese'] exceeds all the cream cheese that can be made."

In addition to being served during the meal, potted foods could be used to thicken soups, to make sandwiches, for those unable to chew their food and for travelers.

Potting was not always a foolproof way to store food. Glasse included a recipe "to Save potted birds, that begin to be bad... [and] that no body could bear the smell for the rankness of the butter.."

The potting pots were earthenware or fine china. Receipts specified sizes from small to large, and round or long. Perhaps the finer containers were for immediate use on the table, while the earthenware served for long term storage.

Several Chesapeake colonial probate inventories listed potting pots in china and earthenware. The famed Virginian Peyton Randolph's estate in 1775 had two as part of a Blue and White China set with a Tureen, 11 dishes, 4 Sauce boats, 2 Potting Pots, 13 Coffee Cups & Saucers, and 18 plates. [Gunston inventories online]

Porcelain companies in England produced potting pots from the 1740s until the mid 1780s. In a c1755 pricelist from the Worcester China Warehouse in London, prices for three sizes of “potting pans” by the dozen were 6/ , 9/ and 12/ . “Potting pots and covers, white, oval, basket weave at 2/6 per dozen.” [Darling]

China was replaced by various types of glazed pottery, produced in large numbers in northern England, into the 20th century. A charming specialized shallow pot contained char, [photo from Fitzwilliam Museum] a fish from the Lake District of England, while the taller, lidded one with a picture of a deer contained potted meat.

To pot a Swan
Bone and skin your Swan, and beat the flesh in a mortar, taking out the strings as you beat it; then take some clear fat bacon, and beat with the Swan, and when 'tis of a light flesh-colour, there is bacon enough in it; and when 'tis beaten till 'tis like dough, 'tis enough; then season it with pepper, salt, cloves, mace, and nutmeg, all beaten fine; mix it well with your flesh, and give it a beat or two all together; then put it in an earthen pot, with a little claret and fair water, and at the top two pounds of fresh butter spread over it; cover it with coarse paste, and bake it with bread; then turn it out into a dish, and squeeze it gently to get out the moisture; then put it in a pot fit for it; and when 'tis cold, cover it over with clarified butter, and next day paper it up. In this manner you may do Goose, Duck, or Beef, or Hare's flesh. [E. Smith 1739]

Potted Beef.
Rub a piece of lean fleshy beef, about three pounds in weight, with an ounce of saltpetre powdered, and afterwards with two ounces of salt; put it in a pan or salting tray, and let it lie two days, basting it with the brine, and rubbing it into it each day. Then put the meat into an earthenware jar, just large enough to hold it, together with all the skin and gristle of the joint, first trimmed from it: add about a pint of water, put some stiff paste over the top of the jar, and place it in a slow oven to bake for four hours. When it is done, pour off the gravy, (which save to use for enriching sauces or gravies,) take out the gristle and the skin; then cut the meat small, and beat it in a mortar, adding occasionally a little of the gravy, a little fresh butter, and finely powdered allspice, cloves, and pepper, enough to season it. The more you beat and rub the meat, the better, as it will require so much less butter or gravy, which will assist it to keep the longer; but when potted beef is wanted for present use, the addition of gravy and butter will improve its taste and appearance. When it is intended for keeping, put it into small earthenware pots or into tin cans, press it down hard, pour on the top clarified butter to the thickness of a quarter of an inch, and tie over it a piece of damp bladder.
To make potted meat more savory, you may beat up with it the flesh of an anchovy or two, or a little minced tongue, or minced ham or bacon; or mushroom powder, curry powder, a few shalots, or sweet herbs of any kind, the flavor of whichever may be most agreeable. [Hale 1852]

Works cited
Beeton, Isabella. Book of Household Management. London: 1863
Belcher, George. Potted Char and other Delicacies. 1933. cartoon appeared in Punch magazine

Briggs, Richard. The English Art of Cookery. London: 1788
Darling, Trevor. “English 18th century porcelain potting pots and pans” in Northern Ceramic Society Journal UK 2002
Farley, John. The London Art of Cookery. London: 1787
Glasse, Hannah. The Art of Cookery. London: 1747
Hale, Sarah. The Ladies' New Book of Cookery. NY: 1852
Kitchiner, William. Apicius Redivus, or The Cook’s Oracle. London: 1817
Price, Rebecca. Complete Cook. 1681
Smith, E. The Compleat Housewife. London: 1739 9th ed
Smith, Robert. Court Cookery. London: 1725
Gunston inventories online: http://chnm.gmu.edu/probateinventory/search.php

©2010 Patricia Bixler Reber
hearthcook.com

National Parks free admission

2010-02-22T15:04:00.000-05:00

Apr 17-25 National Parks for free

All 392 of the National Parks are free, and some will have special activities for the week of April 17-25, 2010. National Parks Weeks also includes Earth Day, which is April 22. http://www.nps.gov/npweek

Tossing the Pancake

2010-02-16T20:04:00.001-05:00

George Cruikshank illustrated the custom of tossing the pancake on Pancake Day/Shrove Tuesday, in the 1837 edition of Comic Almanac.

Tossing The Pancake, verb. phr.(Westminster)1867. Collins, The Public Schools, 171. The old Shrove-Tuesday custom of Tossing Tub Pancake, though now peculiar to Westminster, is said to have been also formerly in use at Eton. The ceremony as at present performed is this. The cook, preceded by the verger, enters the large school, in full official costume, with the hot cake in the pan. He tosses it—or tries to toss it, for it is no easy feat —over the iron bar, which has been already mentioned as having once held a curtain screening off the upper school from the lower. If he succeeds he claims a fee of two guineas. There is a scramble among the boys, who stand on the other side of the bar, for the Pancake, and if any boy can secure it whole, which seldom happens, he carries it np to the dean, who presents him with a sovereign. They also claim a right to "book" the performer (i.e. hurl a shower of books at him) if he fails more than once. This right was liberally exercised in 1865, when the wrath of tha school had culminated owing to repeated failures in that and the previous year. The exasperated cook replied to the attack with his only available missile—the frying-pan—and a serious row was the consequence. The battle is celebrated in a clever mock-heroic poem, in Greek Homeric verse, attributed to a high Westminster authority.

The Public School Word-book, by Farmer, John Stephen. 1900

Snow Cream

2010-02-10T15:56:00.001-05:00

The large snowfalls in the mid Atlantic area has caused a sudden popularity of Snow Cream recipes on the internet, local news, and an article in the Washington Post. Modern recipes use evaporated milk, sweetened condensed milk, cream, or even yogurt. Below are historical receipts which are delicous and simple to make.

Elizabeth Ellicott Lea, born here in Ellicott City, Md., wrote her cookbook in 1845, and added to it in 1846 and 1851. The last edition stayed in print for 40 years, and I have met a few elderly ladies who used Domestic Cookery, published in Baltimore:

Snow Cream
Take the richest cream you can procure, season it with a few drops of essence of lemon, or syrup of lemon peel, and powdered white sugar, and if you choose a spoonful of preserve syrup, and just as you send it to table, stir in light newly fallen snow till it is nearly as stiff as ice cream.

I prefer vanilla flavor over the lemon, as appeared in later recipes. I left out the egg, and mixed the wet ingrediants until sugar was dissolved. Since we had about 45" on the ground from the two storms in five days, I put the bowl in the snow and let the liquid chill. As the snow was falling, I added from the surrounding top layers of snow. Or, put snow in a larger bowl as a freezer, insert the other bowl and stir. Eat immediately or store the Snow Cream in the freezer.

1 C cream or milk
1/2 C sugar
1 t vanilla
12+ C of snow

Snow Cream.—Mrs. M. A. H. Rowe, Columbia Co.,N.Y. says the following is quite equal to Ice cream. Beat thoroughly 1 egg with 1 cup white sugar, add 1 cup sweet cream, flavor to the taste, and stir in snow until it is quite stiff.American Agriculturist, NY: 1862

Fresh snow contains a large proportion of ammonia which renders the cakes light, but which soon evaporates, rendering old snow useless for this purpose.
Buckeye Cookery Minneapolis, Minn.: Buckeye Pub. Co., 1877.

©2010 Patricia Bixler Reber
hearthcook.com

Gridirons - chalking and cleaning, broiling and basting

2010-02-01T15:18:00.001-05:00

For centuries cooks have used the gridiron as one way to prepare meat, fish, poultry, and vegetables. Hearth cooks often misuse the gridiron, treating like our modern grill - such as basting causing smoke, keeping the bars black, and imprinting lines on the meat. Most modern cooks don’t use chalk. A good description of the use and care of gridirons for broiling can be found in The Cook's Own Book, Boston 1832, by Mrs. Lee, who copied a large portion from Kitchiner's The Cook's Oracle, 1822 [see below].

Shiny bars. Instead of keeping the entire gridiron black, the tops of the bars should be shiny metal. The bar tops must be kept 'bright' as there is "no good cause for the bars ever becoming black" [The Servant's Guide and Family Manual. 2d ed. London: 1831] if the tops are wiped while hot with a linen cloth.

Heat the gridiron first. "The gridiron should be hot through (which will take five minutes) before any thing is put on it. It must then be rubbed with a piece of fresh suet, to prevent the meat from being marked, or sticking to the hot bars; if for fish, chalk the bars. [The Servant's Guide and Family Manual. 2d ed. London: 1831]
Sticking and marking. Grease with lard for meat or chalk for fish to stop sticking and "to prevent the meat from being marked by the gridiron.” [The Cook's Own Book. Mrs. N.K.M. Lee. Boston: 1832]

Chalk for fish. Many authors through the 19th century instructed the reader to chalk the gridiron bars, and the Kentucky Housewife [1839] suggests "chalk or flour." "When in a hurry, dry and flour the fish, and chalk the gridiron; and when there is any disposition to stick, loosen them with a knife; turn them, rubbing the gridiron clean." [Domestic Economy, and Cookery, for Rich and Poor, by a lady. London: 1827]

In her receipt to broil Whitings, Sarah Harrison [The House-keeper's Pocket-book. 1739; Charles Carter, The London and Country Cook. 1749] made a "Note, The Chalk will keep the Fish from sticking." For broiling Cod, John Farley [The London Art of Cookery, 1787; and later Williams' The Accomplished Housekeeper, 1797] "Make a good clear fire, rub the gridiron with a piece of chalk, and set it high from the fire."

"It is better to have a gridiron expressly for fish, otherwise meat is often made to taste fishy." [Mrs. Bradley's Housekeeper's Guide. Cinn. & Phila: 1860]

Smoke was viewed as detrimental to the flavor of the food. Fires were to be brisk and clear. "When the fat smokes and blazes too much remove the gridiron for an instant, and just sprinkle the fire with a little salt. Arrange your gridiron, if possible, so that it may be from two to five inches above the fire and slightly inclined towards the cook." [Buckmaster's Cookery. London: 1874]

Hannah Glasse warned to "never baste any thing on the gridiron, for it only makes it smoked and burnt." [The Art of Cookery made Plain and Easy. London: 1784]

To lessen the dripping onto the coals and causing smoke, the gridiron should be slanted [as suggested by Lee and others, and seen in antique gridirons with shorter legs] or the bars "made concave, and terminate in a trough to catch the gravy and keep the fat, from dropping." [Kitchiner]

There were upright gridirons so the juice and fat would not drip on the coals and cause smoke. "It is cheaper in the end to buy a double hanging gridiron, and broil the steak in front of the fire, instead of on it. The gravy is caught in the little trough below, and thus is saved. [The Young Woman's Book. Laura Valentine London: 1878] However, Buckmaster wrote "Perpendicular gridirons are objectionable, because there is always a current of cold air on one side of the thing broiled."

The fire should extend somewhat beyond the edges of the gridiron, in order that the sides of the meat may be acted upon by the heat at the same time as that portion which is in more immediate contact with the fire. [Delicate Feasting. Theodore Child. NY: 1890]

Steak tongs or fingers were to be used when turning the meat, rather than a fork, so not to break the colagulated surface and cause the juices to run out. "Broil it quick, and turn it often, with steak-tongs, to keep in the gravy and make it a nice brown..." [The Complete Servant, by Samuel and Sarah Adams. London: 1826] "In this kind of cookery [broiling on gridiron] the object is to coagulate as quickly as possible all the albumen on the surface, and seal up the pores of the meat so as to keep in all the juices and flavour." [The Encyclopaedia Britannica. 1890] "In practical kitchen-work one is constantly reminded of the truth of the familiar saying that fingers were made before forks, and also before tongs." [Delicate Feasting. Theodore Child. NY 1890] But if a fork is used it "...must be stuck into the fat to turn them, or the gravy will run out. [The Young Woman's Book. Laura Valentine. London: 1878]

Paper on the Gridiron. A interesting method using paper was to "...make a sheet of strong cap-paper up at the four corners in the form of a dripping-pan; pin up the corners, butter the paper and also the gridiron, and set it over a fire of charcoal; put in your meat, let it do leisurely, keep it basting and turning to keep in the gravy..." [Hannah Glasse, Art of Cookery. London 1774 - from The Cooks and Confectioners Dictionary by John Nott, London 1723] "Another way is to take pieces of white paper and butter them well. Wrap in each a piece of salmon, securing the paper around them with a string or pins. Lay them on a gridiron, and broil them over a clear but moderate fire till thoroughly done. Take off the paper..." [The Southern Gardener and Receipt-Book. Mary L. Edgeworth. Phila: 1860]

Excerpts from books:
General Instructions from Lee [1832]:
Keep your gridiron quite clean between the bars, and bright on the top: when it is hot, wipe it well with a linen cloth: just before you use it, rub the bars with clean mutton-suet, to prevent the meat from being marked by the gridiron.

Let the bars of the gridiron be all hot through, but yet not burning hot upon the surface: this is the perfect and fine condition of the gridiron. As the bars keep away as much heat as their breadth covers, it is absolutely necessary they should be thoroughly hot before the thing to be cooked be laid on them.

The bars of gridirons should be made concave, and terminate in a trough to catch the gravy and keep the fat, from dropping into the fire and making a smoke, which will spoil the broil. Upright gridirons are the best, as they can be used at any fire without fear of smoke; and the gravy is preserved in the trough under them.

Take care to have a very clear, brisk fire; throw a little salt on it; make the gridiron hot, and set it slanting, to prevent the fat from dropping into the fire, and making a smoke. It requires more practice and care than is generally supposed to do steaks to a nicety; and for want of these little attentions, this very common dish, which every body is supposed capable of dressing, seldom comes to table in perfection.
The Cook's Own Book. Mrs. N.K.M. Lee. Boston: 1832

If a gridiron is well polished at first, there can be no good cause for the bars ever becoming black. Let it be always rubbed bright when put aside. The gridiron should be hot through (which will take five minutes) before any thing is put on it. It must then be rubbed with a piece of fresh suet, to prevent the meat from being marked, or sticking to the hot bars; if for fish, chalk the bars.
The Servant's Guide and Family Manual. 2d ed. London: 1831

Works Cited:Adams, Samuel and Sarah. The Complete Servant. London: 1826
Bradley, Mrs. J.S. Mrs. Bradley's Housekeeper's Guide. Cinn./Phila: 1860
Bryan, Lettuce. Kentucky Housewife. Cincinatti: 1839
Buckmaster, John. Buckmaster's Cookery. London: 1874
Carter, Charles. The London and Country Cook. London: 1749
Child, Theodore. Delicate Feasting. NY: 1890
Domestic Economy, and Cookery, for Rich and Poor, by a lady. London: 1827
Edgeworth, Mary. The Southern Gardener and Receipt-Book. Phila: 1860
The Encyclopaedia Britannica. NY: 1890
Farley, John. The London Art of Cookery, London: 1787
Glasse, Hannah. The Art of Cookery made Plain and Easy. London: 1784
Harrison, Sarah. The House-keeper's Pocket-book. London: 1739
Kitchiner, William. The Cook's Oracle, London: 1822
Lee, N.K.M. The Cook's Own Book, Boston: 1832
Nott, John. The Cooks and Confectioners Dictionary. London: 1723
The Servant's Guide and Family Manual. 2d ed. London: 1831
Valentine, Laura. The Young Woman's Book. London: 1878
Williams, T. The Accomplished Housekeeper, London: 1797

©2010 Patricia Bixler Reber
hearthcook.com

Candy Thermometer

2010-01-25T12:55:00.001-05:00

The candy thermometer did not become available to most housekeepers until the early 1900s when appeared in advertisements and recipes. The professional confectioner's thermometers were longer and more expensive. On the right is a patent from 1878 for a glass encased one, and on the left from 1874 for rock candy with the thermometer [B] sticking out to read the scale.

"Until the last few years, [1914] for the amateur, the only tests to determine the completion of cooking have been known as " thread," "soft ball," "hard ball," "crack" and " hard crack." The professional confectioner has long been able, by the use of a thermometer, to determine just how hot his candy was and to remove it from the heat at exactly the right moment. His thermometer, however, was not only too expensive for the amateur, but also too long to be used except in a large vat." [Candy-making revolutionized: confectionery from vegetables. Mary Elizabeth Hall NY: 1914]

An interesting line of patents involved combining thermometers and stirrers as in the following two examples from 1880 and 1904. In the first, BF Adams stated that..."In the manufacture of confectionery... it is necessary for the attendant to stir the liquid continually to prevent it from burning, and also to observe the temperature of the same. It was heretofore been customary to use one hand for holding the stirring spoon or spatual, and the other hand for holding a Fahrenheit thermometer in the liquid."

"There are now on the market, however, thermometers that the amateur confectioner or small manufacturer can use to advantage. Even when hardware dealers do not keep the thermometers in stock, they can - and will — order them from their jobbers. The instruments, of which there are several makes, are about nine inches long, and sell for from one dollar to two dollars and fifty cents. Most of these instruments register from about eighty degrees to three hundred and eighty degrees Fahrenheit...." [Candy-making revolutionized: confectionery from vegetables. Mary Elizabeth Hall NY: 1914]

The following from: The Art of Candy Making... compiled by Dona MacKenzie Synder. Dayton, Ohio: Helath Pub Co, 1915
"Of all the tools for making candy, the candy thermometer is the most important. ... Candy thermometers cost from one to three dollars, and can usually be purchased at any good candy supply house or at a good hardware store. If it is not possible to secure a good thermometer in your city, one can be secured from The Health Publishing Company, Main and Fourth Streets, Dayton, Ohio.

Before using the thermometer the first time, test it in boiling water. The mercury should stand at exactly 212° when the water boils, unless the altitude is several thousand feet above sea level, which makes the boiling point lower.

Always use a kettle proportionate in size to the amount of sugar being boiled. The syrup must be deep enough in the kettle to cover the bulb of the thermometer; otherwise it will not register correctly. It will not break the thermometer to place it in the syrup just after it begins to boil, unless it has been in a cold room.

When making candy it pays to watch it closely, to read your thermometer correctly, and to remove the syrup from the fire the moment the thermometer registers the correct degree."

Small thread 230°-236°

Long thread 240°-245°

Softball 244°-246°

Hardball 250°

Very hard ball 280°

Brittle 300°

Coloring point 315°

Soup Tureen

2010-01-18T08:34:00.001-05:00

Whether silver or part of a china set, the tureen is a glorious piece for the table. During the Federal period it was generally placed at the bottom end of the table for the first course with the fish platter on the top. If there are many guests, two soups may be served, with one at each end. The other serving dishes, matching in size and shape across the table or on the diagonal, are placed on the table but remain covered. [see diagram from Frazer 1791, 1820 and Briggs 1794 below right] A few authors, such as Mrs. Parkes [see below] wrote to put it at the top. Once the soup has been served and finished, the bowls and tureen are removed and the 'remove' put in its place. Then all the other dishes are uncovered and the first course continues. The picture is by Mary Ellen Best in 1838.
When the dinner is on the table let the plates be put round, one for each person; let the soupplates be all put at the bottom of the table, a little to the left hand of the person who helps it, and close to the tureen; this will be more convenient than putting the soup-plates right in front, both to you and the person who serves. ... As soon as the company are seated, if there is soup, take the cover off; if there be only fish at the top and a joint at the bottom, remove the cover from off the fish and the sauce-boat which belongs to it.

If there is any remove for the fish or soup, ring the bell, that it may be in readiness...Before you remove the fish and soup from off the table, take the small tray with a clean knife-cloth in it, hold it in your left hand, and take the fish-knife and soup-ladle off with the right; be careful in doing it; hold the tray as near as you can, that you may not dirty the cloth. As soon as the removes are put on the table, uncover all the dishes...
Cosnett, Thomas. The Footman's Directory, London: 1823

Nor, unless the party is a large one, is it as usual as it was to have two dishes of fish, and two tureens of soup. One of each, for a party of nine or ten is thought enough, the soup is placed at the top of the table, the fish at the bottom.
Parkes, Mrs. Wm. Domestic Duties. London, NY 1829

©2009 Patricia Bixler Reber
hearthcook.com

Twelfth Night Cakes

2010-01-05T21:16:00.001-05:00

The engraving, which shows some cooking implements, is from Chamber's The Book of Days, 1869: "The sketch above is copied from an old French print, executed by J. Mariatte, representing Le Roi de la Fève (the King of the Bean) at the moment of his election, and preparing to drink to the company." The following image, with the cake, is from the Colonial Williamsburg site: Twelfth Night. 1794 broadside.

For more pictures and information go to my website: Twelfth Night - New Orleans King Cake or Twelfth Night Cake

New Year's Cookies

2010-01-01T19:00:00.001-05:00

New York Cookies
Take a half-pint or a tumbler full of cold water, and mix it with half a pound of powdered white sugar. Sift three pounds of flour into a large pan, and cut up in it a pound of butter; rub the butter very fine into the flour. Add a grated nutmeg, and a tea-spoonful of powdered cinnamon, with a wine glass of rose water. Work in the sugar, and make the whole into a stiff dough, adding, if necessary, a little cold water. Dissolve a tea-spoonful of pearl-ash in just enough of warm water to cover it, and mix it in at the last.

Take the lump of dough out of the pan, and knead it on the paste-board till it becomes quite light. Then roll it out rather more than half an inch thick, and cut it into square cakes with a jagging iron or with a sharp knife. Stamp the surface of each with a cake print. Lay them in buttered pans, and bake them of a light brown in a brisk oven. They are similar to what are called New Year's cakes, and will keep two or three weeks. In mixing the dough, you may add three table-spoonfuls of carraway seeds.
Eliza Leslie. Directions for Cookery, Phila: 1840

In 1857 Leslie included a slightly different recipe using soda and tataric acid, and wrote:
"The bakers in New York ornament these cakes, with devices or pictures raised by a wooden stamp. They are good plain cakes for children."
Miss Leslie's New Cookery Book. Eliza Leslie, Phila: 1857.

New Year Cake.
Mix together three pounds of flour, a pound and a half of sugar, and three-quarters of a pound of butter; dissolve a tea-spoonful of salæratus in enough new milk to wet the flour; mix them together; grate in a nutmeg, or the peel of a lemon; roll them out, cut them in shapes, and bake.
Elizabeth Ellicott Lea. Domestic Cookery. Baltimore: 1851

Several Hudson Valley NY authors, including Washington Irving, included the cookies in their fiction.

In Salmagundi; or, The whimwhams & opinions of Launcelot Langstaff, Irving wrote "New Year was celebrated with great festivity during that golden age of our city, when the reins of government were held by the renowned Rip Van Dam, who always did honor to the season by seeing out the old year; a ceremony which consisted in plying his guests with bumpers, until not one of them was capable of seeing. ... In his days, according to my grandfather, first were invented these notable cakes, hight new-year-cookies, which originally were impressed on one side with the honest burly countenance of the illustrious Rip; and on the other with that of the noted St. Nicholas, vulgarly called Santa Claus... These cakes are to this time given on the first of January to all visitors, together with a glass of cherry-bounce, or raspberry-brandy."

Rip Van Winkle, first published in 1819, Irving claimed to come from the research of Diedrich Knickerbocker whose "memory may be appreciated by ... certain biscuit bakers, who have gone so far as to imprint his likeness on their new year's cakes, and have thus given him a chance for immortality, almost equal to the being stamped on a Waterloo Medal, or a Queen Anne's farthing."

A story The Baker's Dozen relates that "Baas [Boss] Volckert Jan Pietersen Van Amsterdam kept a bake-shop in Albany, and lives in history as the man who invented New Year cakes....on the last night of 1654..." encountered an old woman who demanded a dozen New Year's cookies. He sold her twelve, but she kept insisting on one more making a dozen.
Myths and Legends of our own Land. Charles Skinner. 1896

Christmas 1863

2009-12-21T09:16:00.001-05:00